Hammers to the Grindstone
by Laura Latts
Summary: When Phineas is separated from Ferb right before an inventing competition and in need of a partner, what's he to do and how does Dr. Doofenshmirtz fit into the story?
1. Chapter 1

It was a nice day in Danville. The sun was shining and Phineas Flynn was ready for a big day at the Inventor's Competition happening in the Tri-State Area's park. Yes sir all he had to do was get Ferb, their toolbox, and they'd be on their way. Unfortunately there was a little snag to this idea.

"What? What do you mean Grandpa Fletcher's sick and you have to go take care of him?", Phineas exclaimed to his step-brother who simply rolled his eyes. "Ferb! I HAVE to have a partner in this competition! It's in the rules!"

"Isabella?", he asked as he began to pack.

"She's with the fireside girlscouts.", Phineas explained.

"Buford?"

"Bullying."

"Baljeet?"

"Being bullied."

"Irving?"

"Actually coincedentially enough, his family's gone to Spain for a family vacation.", Phineas sighed. "With you and Dad gone, there's no one who can help me with it!"

At that moment, Candace and Linda walked by.

"...and since the boys are going to need a good fresh batch of my homemade chicken noodle soup, you get to stay home with Phineas and be in charge till we get back.", Linda was explaining.

"Wait, why do I have to stay alone with Phineas?", Candace asked.

"Candace, your Gradnpa Fletcher has the flu. We don't want everyone coming back home and catching it. Ferb's only going because he hardly gets sick and seeing his face will help Grandpa Fletcher cheer up a bit."

"Well I guess it'll be cool to be in charge.", Candace shrugged.

Linda walked away and Ferb stared for a moment before returning to packing.

"Actually the real reason why I'm going to make sure his legs are back on right.", he said quietly.

"Hey Candace!", Phineas smiled, hoping to find a new partner. "Since you and I are staying home, can you help me with the Inventor's Competition today?"

"Ew! NO! There's no way in heaven, heck, or on Earth that I'd actually HELP you with one of YOUR lame-o, crazy, hairbrained ideas! I'm just gonna drop you off because I have party I have to go to!", she snapped.

"Why do you HAVE to go to it?", Phineas asked.

"Because Jeremy's hosting it! DUH!", she retorted before walking off again.

"...Am I really that desperate, Ferb?", Phineas asked, turning to his brother who only looked at him expectantly. "...Yeah. That's what I thought too."

Within the next moment, he was at Candace's feet, with big pleading eyes, hoping to appear as cute and helpless as possible.

"Pleeeeeaaaase Candace? For your own little brother whom you love so much?", he begged cutely.

"NO.", said Candace firmly. "You can find another loser at the contest. I'm going to see Jeremy!"

Phineas sighed and stood up as the rest of the family walked out the door.

"Bye kids.", Lawrence called out. "Be good to your sister now, Phineas."

"And Candace, no boys or 'intimate get togethers'.", Linda warned, using air quotes.

"Can I at least go to Jeremy's party?", Candace asked. "You said so earlier this week."

"Okay but BEHAVE.", she noted.

"Bye Mom! Bye Dad! Bye Ferb!", Candace and Phineas waved good bye as they climbed into the car and drove off.

"...So how are we getting to the contest and the party?", Phineas asked.

"Well I asked Stacy if she and her boyfriend Coltrane could give me a lift. I guess they could drive you to the contest.", Candace shrugged.

"Thanks, Candace!", Phineas smiled.

It wasn't long before Coltrane's car appeared in the driveway.

"Phineas! Are you ready yet?", Candace called out upstairs. "They're here!"

"Almost! Just give me a minute!", Phineas called back.

He soon came downstairs with a toolbox and a satchel around his chest.

"What's in the bag?", Candace asked curiously.

"Just my laptop. It took me a little while to download all my written blueprints onto it but I just hope I can find a partner who can help me!", he smiled.

"Well come on then.", Candace said, walking outside.

"Hey Girlfriend!", Stacey greeted, getting out of the car.

"Hey Stace! Uh, hey listen. Coltrane doesn't mind dropping Phineas off at the park, does he?", Candace asked.

Stacey in turned ask Coltrane who said it was okay and the group was soon on their way. After a little while, Phineas was dropped off at the park and Candace decided to give him a few instructions before leaving.

"Look when I'm done with my party, I better be finding you right HERE okay? Cause if you don't, you're not the only thing that's gonna get busted here, got it?", she groweled, holding up a fist to emphasize though Phineas was oblivious to the threat.

"Okay, Sis. Thanks again for the lift, Coltrane.", he simply smiled.

"No problem, Phineas.", he smiled.

Candace climbed into the back of the car and Stacey looked back at her as they pulled away.

"A little harsh, much?", she noted.

"Well aside from the fact that if Phineas is hurt I'm gonna be busted for it, I'm really worried for him, y'know?", Candace explained.

"Yeah but the yelling?"

"Stacey, you know how oblivious Phineas is to most females. You have to yell at him to get his attention.", Candace rolled her eyes.

"Yeah I guess you got a point.", Stacey nodded slightly.

Meanwhile back with Phineas, he looked about the place finding tables were inventors were talking with their partners. At first with a large grin on his face but then it soon fell into worry.

"...I hope I can find a partner before it begins...", he said to himself.

He walked more into the park, looking about, hoping to find someone who didn't have a partner when he soon came across Thaddeus and Thor.

"Oh hey Thaddeus!", Phineas smiled and waved.

"Hmph. Sup, chump.", Thaddeus only snarkishly replied while chewing on some gum. "Don't see your loser brother around."

"Oh well he had some family matters to attend to.", Phineas shrugged.

Meanwhile back in England, Ferb was busy working over a small keypad in his hand when he finally pressed a button and a beam of light came out. He looked over at his grandfather's legs to find them not backwards now but instead both feet faceing the left.

"Oh! Not there quite yet, Sonny.", Grandpa Fletcher remarked, looking down at his feet with a smile.

"Ha ha! But now I guess you can say I have two left feet!"

Back at the contest Thaddeus cackled in his opponent's face.

"HA! Even your own brother thinks your a loser! Well I'll see you with my big trophy later, sucker!", he left off with a sarcastic salute and walked back over to his own brother.

"...He really didn't have to be so stuck-up about it.", Phineas sighed a bit.

"Oh man don't I know it?" 


	2. Chapter 2

Phineas turned around to the German-accented voice and found a tall man with messy brown hair standing not to far behind him. He wore a lab coat and a black turtleneck sweater with gray pants and had a long pointy nose to go with his shadowed eyes. Little did he realize at the moment that this was Heinz Doofenshmirtz. The mad scientist his own pet platypus, Perry, was sent to thwart by a secret agency on a daily basis as he often tried to take over the Tri-State Area.

"Sorry to suddenly come in on your one-sided conversation. Couldn't help but over hear.", the man simply shrugged.

"Oh no that's cool. Are you entering the competition too?", Phineas asked, earning an eye-roll from the stranger.

"Well I WAS until the judges said that a robot didn't count as an assistant.", he groaned. "I mean come on! I programmed his database to be as humanoid as possible. He's a robotic man for crying out loud! I didn't engineer the squirrel that keeps him going or anything."

Phineas stared, amazed at this possibility. Obviously here was a man who knew engineering and of all odds, he didn't even have a partner! In the midst of his rant, he noticed a small hand reached up at him and looked down at the curious young boy who's eyes were bright with hope.

"Phineas Flynn! A young inventor who'd like to be your partner!", he smiled.

After looking at the hand for a moment, Heinz smiled and shook it.

"Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Glad to meet you.", he replied.

"Is it cool if I just call you Dr. D?", Phineas asked.

"Sure. I hear it often enough.", the man shrugged.

"Awesome then! Let's sign up!", the boy said excitedly.

After signing in and getting a table, the two began to pull up plans. Doofenshmirtz laid out a blueprint and offered it to Phineas.

"So I was thinking why not we build a 'Backfire-inator'?", he suggested as Phineas typed away on the computer. "That way we could zap all the other contestants and all their inventions will backfire on them and we'll just HAVE to win by default!"

"Uh... Isn't that kinda like cheating?", Phineas asked curiously.

"Well DUH.", Doofenshmirtz chuckled to himself. "How else could we win?"

"Well I was thinking we could make an emotion-detecting music player.", Phineas suggested, turning the laptop so as to show the idea. "It plays all different kinds of music and sounds in correspondence to your moods. So when you feel happy, you can listen to everything that makes you smile and when you're upset, it'll match accordingly and women and emos would be able to enjoy their kinds of music for as long as they wish to stay in that current mood. Also nothing helps express feelings more than music."

Doofenshmirtz looked over the plan, somewhat surprise by the idea. It all looked like it would fit so perfectly together. Like some sorta big puzzle. And he knew better than anyone else how much he loved to wallow in his depression with music.

"...Is this your first time inventing?", he asked curiously.

"No. Not at all!", Phineas smiled. "My brother and friends normally help me build stuff but I mean we've built a roller coaster through down town. Traveled through time twice. Went around the whole world in less than 2 days. Built a shrinking submarine. Built a molecular separator-"

"Okay. There is no way you did all that.", Heinz scoffed.

"Yeah we did. Look!", he pulled up other blueprints and Doofenshmirtz scanned through them. More and more amazed with each print.

"...And you did all this?", he asked.

"Well some. We haven't finished them all but yeah.", Phineas smiled.

Doofenshmirtz stared down at the boy in shock. How could one little boy who thought all this up to a tee, need a partner? Especially someone who always failed like himself.

"..So a music player that detects moods, huh?", he asked, pulling it back up and handing the laptop back over.

"Yup! This is gonna be so awesome!", Phineas smiled excitedly.

"I'll say! With your plans and my talent with tools, maybe we'll come in second!", Heinz smiled as he pulled up sheet metal to start working.

"'Second'? Don't you mean 'First'?", Phineas asked curiously.

"Well see I tend to have the misfortune of failing at just about everything.", Dr. D. sighed as the memories came rolling by. "Inators. Tests. Relationships. I could make a long list about it."

Phineas smiled faded as he tried to imagine that thought. Never being able to win? Not even a small prize?

"That's... That's awful.", Phineas said, as the thought swept over him.

"Eh.", he shrugged. "You get used to it. Like an odd girlfriend who, though stabs you with a fork, still gives you something of company... Which...didn't really work out all that well in the end either."

Phineas stared at the man for a moment longer, just unable to wrap his mind around that concept. He was only 10 years old and he's done a lot of great stuff but here was a man who was possibly in his 40's and he failed at everything. As he turned to his toolbox to start on the project, he felt a determination in his mind that said no matter what, this was gonna be a great day for Heinz too.

As they began to work, of course, trouble soon came around the corner. And by "trouble", as Phineas would define it, it was meant that Thaddeus and Thor came by to stick their noses into the competition's business. Of course though, being the optimist that he is, Phineas tried to keep it good-natured.

"Well I see you're just NOW getting started.", Thaddeus commented as he came strolling by.

"Yup.", Phineas simply said as he worked on the circuit board.

"What kind of lame-o junk are ya making now?", he snickered as he looked about.

"We're making an emotion-sensing music player.", Phineas smiled as he moved on to working out a few details on the prints with a pencil.

"Ha! Shyeah right! Isn't that impossible?"

Phineas' pencil broke, hearing the word "impossible" though his smile remained. Doofenshmirtz looked up from forming all the metal, curious of what the boys were talking about. It was obvious that something was bothering Phineas but he decided to keep quiet and see how it turned out on its own.

"...Well you know Thad, the only thing that's actually impossible, is impossibility.", Phineas replied, turning around to face the somewhat stunned boy with a smirk.

Thaddeus was quiet for a moment before stammering in slight frustration.

"Th- Ah. Pfft! Well then let's see what you have to say after you come in last!", he snapped before storming off. "Come on Thor, let's beat it!"

The other boy simply stood there for a moment before finally realizing his brother had left and quickly ran off to catch up.

"Pfft. Zurückgeblieben.", Heinz muttered to himself.

* * *

><p><em>Small note: "Zurückgeblieben" is German for "retarded". XP Raise hands if you agree with Heinz's opinion of Thor! *Raises hand.*<em>


	3. Chapter 3

After the two left Phineas' smile fell into a tight glare as he turned back to his invention.

"Ugh, I swear. What people are like sometimes! Every time he gets worse and worse.", he mumbled to himself. "I wish he could just get along and stop making a fun event some sorta major, life-or-death contest."

Heinz looked down curiously at the young boy. It was odd to think that even an extreme optimist like himself was feeling upset like this.

"Phineas? Are you okay?", he asked.

"Hm? Oh yeah yeah.. I..", he sighed. "Sorry. I don't mean to get uptight or anything. I just hate it when people take all the fun out of stuff and all Thaddeus ever tries to do is top me. He never tries to ever just relax and have fun. It's kinda nerve-wracking to deal with sometimes and with my grandpa already sick and Ferb not here, I really don't wanna deal with it today."

"Oh man I know how that is.", Heinz chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"Really?"

"Yeah. There's days a plenty where my daughter, Vanessa, would be mad at me for some reason. My projects would be running late. My annoying younger brother, Roger, would be calling me on the phone non-stop. And to top it all off my nemesis would have to just BUST a wall down and burst on in on whatever I'd be doing and make my inventions blow-up in my face.", he sighed. "And by 'days a plenty', I mean almost every day."

"Wow... Everyday?", Phineas asked.

"Well almost. Vanessa visits on the weekends. But Roger...", he rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah. But enough of that. Let's just get this done, eh?"

Phineas gave a nod and the two worked hard and soon were complete. Phineas smiled down at their project.

"Wow! We finished that faster than anything I've ever built.", Phineas smiled down at their invention. "Now all we need to do is download the music and test it out!"

"Alright! I have my walkman right here!", Doof smiled and held it out.

"Awesome. And I have my ipod! ", Phineas pulled his out.

He sat it on the table and pulled out a small plug-in from the invention and plugged it into where he would plug in his headphones.

"It should only take a moment. Should we both use our music?", Phineas asked.

"Well... To be perfectly honest it's not like I have a whole lot of... How should I say... FUN songs.", Heinz sighed a bit.

"Well that's okay!", Phineas smiled. "All I have is fun, happy songs! And this is supposed to be for both happy AND unhappy people, right?"

"Well alright then.", he smiled a bit and after Phineas was done, plugged in his own music.

After they finished plugging in their music, Phineas sat it up on himself. It wore like a necklace with small circular speakers on the sides except for a small cord that hung down with something that looked like a small cellphone minus all the buttons. Instead a small diamond-shaped button was there with arrows drawn on it. Two triangular buttons were diagonally across from each other and in the middle of the diamond was a smaller circular button with the play and pause symbol on it. Above the triangular buttons was written "options" and "back". It had a small screen above it and a small switch on the side to turn it on and off with a small dial on the other side to mess with the volume. Phineas pulled up the small rectangle and flipped the switch on. Nothing appeared on the screen and he looked curiously at it.

"...That's weird. The batteries should be just fine.", Phineas commented.

"It can't be broken already, can it?", Doofenshmirtz asked, looking over his shoulder.

Phineas looked about it and soon found the problem.

"Here it is! It's all wired through this silly self-destruct button. Dr. D, did you do that?", he asked, looking up at the man.

"Well of course! When you left to use the bathroom I saw you forgot to install one. I mean isn't that what every invention should have?", he asked.

"Uh.. No. You don't really need it do you?", he asked as he began to rewire it.

Doofenshmirtz opened his mouth to argue but as Phineas' words sunk in he suddenly realized that.

"...No.. No actually I don't! Is.. Am I really that insane that I always install one? No wonder my nemesis always defeats me! Dumm kopf!", he smacked his head.

"Well that's cool. I've already got it readjusted.", he smiled and tossed the button aside. "And just in time too! Check out. The judges are coming over."

Doofenshmirtz's face soon crumbled into worry.

"R-really? Already?", he asked, wringing his hands together nervously.

"Hey, Dr. D. It's alright! I'm sure our inveniton's gonna work great!", Phineas said cheerfully.

Heinz mentally snorted.

'Yeah. Keep up the enthusiasm kid. Just wait until you hear we're disqualified for whatever stupid governmental reason...', he thought to himself. 'One kid who's as happy as a clam and I'm gonna drag them down with my bad luck.'

But as the judges came over Heinz's misery only turned into exasperation as his younger and more successful brother, Roger, came by as well.

"Heinz?", Roger said in slight astonishment before putting on his cheesy smile. "Well look what we have here!"

"Rr.. Hello Roger.", Doofenshmirtz mumbled, folding his arms across his chest.

"I see you finally have a REAL partner for once. Phineas Flynn, how are you?", he went on, shaking Phineas' hand.

"Oh not to bad Mayor. I didn't know you knew my partner."

"Know him? Ha! He's my older brother.", he chuckled. "Speaking of, where's yours? Couldn't possibly have hoped to win without him, right?"

"Oh no! Mr. Heinz is a very great substitute!", Phineas smiled. "In fact, I wish he didn't live so far into town. Ferb and I could really make the most out of Summer if he was around more often."

Heinz smiled a bit to himself, feeling a bit encouraged by the kind words. Another judge came up to inspect the invention, seeming to be unimpressed.

"And what exactly have you created?", he asked.

"Oh. Well we haven't exactly come up with a name for it yet. But I guess you can call it uh...", Phineas looked down at it in slight confusion. "..Hmm... I guess I'm drawing a blank for a title. Dr. D?"

"Uh... The first thing that comes to my mind is 'E-M-P-inator'.", Heinz shrugged.

"'E-M-P'?", the judge asked, looking up at him curiously.

"Yeah the Emotional-Music-Playerinator.", he explained. "Or 'emp' for short I guess."

Phineas gave a nod and turned the machine on.

"You see what it does is that it plays all your favorite kinds of music in time to your mood depending on what kind of heat you give off. Like how a mood-ring works but in this case, it plays music.", Phineas explained as he pressed buttons to go into his music files. "It also takes and holds pictures and videos too so when you're happy or upset you can watch or look at that too. I'll start with something happy and try to change my moods for the demo here."

He finally pressed play and soon a good song began to play from the speakers as the ban around his neck changed color to yellow.

_"Bow chika bow wow",_

_That's what my baby says._

_"Mow mow mow",_

_And my hearts starts pumpin..._

The judges smiled a bit and no one could help but bob their heads to the song as it played.

"Kay. Now let's try something... Uh... Well I guess I could try fear next.", he paused for a moment and the song faded to silence and the ban turned black as he pondered the thought. 'What's scary to me?'

After a moment the band on his neck turned into a dark blue as a look of absolute terror crossed the young boys' expressions.

_Wanna be creative but the man won't hear it._

_That big boss man, trying to crush my spirit._

_Got these chains on me!_

_They won't let me fly,_  
><em>Got these chains on me!<em>

_Won't tell me why._

Phineas quickly took off the empinator in fear and tried hard to calm himself back down. The band turned to black and was quickly silent.

"Phineas, you okay?", Doofenshmirtz asked.

"Yeah.. Sorry, I.. I really can't stand the thought of not being able to do anything fun, y'know?", Phineas explained and then held it out at him. "Here, Dr. D.. Why not you give it a shot?"

Heinz stared at it, at first hesitant but then decided to give it a try and put it on.

"Yes, Heinz. Let's go ahead and see you break even more things.", Roger said with a smirk.

Heinz gave a death-glare at him as he put it on and instantly the ban turned bright red as a loud song came out.

_I'm gonna rip you up._

_I'm gonna break you down._

_I'm gonna take you to a chop shop downtown._

Everyone stared in shock as Heinz only scowled at his younger brother.

'Why does Roger always have to make me look bad? Every time! You'd think he'd learn to keep his mouth shut!', he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and tried to keep himself calmed. 'Relax Heinz. No need to get into a frenzy. Besides, at least it's working. I'd just LOVE to hear the thoughts Roger was thinking of right now.'

Heinz couldn't help but smirk as the band turned green and the song changed.

_Well my goody-two-shoes brother!_

_The favorite of my mother!_

_He's the one I want to smother-_

Heinz quickly felt his cheeks become hot as his heart leapt into his throat at the song. He quickly ripped off the invention off and looked back at the judges in slight embarrassment.

"Er.. Ha ha!", he managed weakly. "I uh.. I guess it had a slight glitch there. Heh heh."

There was an awkward moment of silence till Heinz offered it to Roger.

"H-here, Roger. You try it.", he offered.

Roger shrugged and put it on, though his mind seemed to be elsewhere. The ban turned purple as Roger continued in his thoughts.

'That was weird. Does Heinz really have a problem with me? I mean I was only teasing him. Isn't that what brothers are supposed to do?', he was thinking to himself.

_Going deep into your mind._

_Never know what we will find._

The song continued to play, though Roger paid no attention to it. Phineas chuckled and smiled at Heinz.

"He must be deep in thought.", he noted.

"Well this is a first.", Heinz simply said as he placed his arms across his chest.

"So exactly how is it that it matches to your moods?", a female judge asked.

"Oh! Well it takes in the amount of heat you give off, much like a mood ring, and uses that information to determine your emotions and what song would best match up to it. It also has a small sphere on the back that picks up thoughts and mental waves the living being normally gives off.", Phineas explained as Roger took it off. "So when you think you wanna listen to a specific song, it'll automatically play it for ya!"

"May I?", the female judge asked.

Roger handed it over and the judge put it on. After a moment the ban's color didn't change but instead, Love Handel's "Snuck Your Way Right Into My Heart" began to play. The judges all looked at one another and they handed back the invention.

"Well done, boys. It's a rather impressive machine.", the first judge commented. "We'll let you know when we announce the winners."

"Awesome! See ya then!", Phineas waved good-bye.

As the judges left, Roger trailed behind and looked back at Heinz for a moment, his mind still churning. He gave a shrug and walked away though, not giving things a second thought. There was a moment of silence between the two inventors before Heinz groaned and banged his head on the table. The sudden action startled Phineas who jumped back.

"Dr. D.?", he asked.

"Oh man I am SUCH an idiot...", Heinz groaned. "Of all the men in the world I have to be one that can't keep a better hold on my emotions..."

"What? Dr. D., what's wrong?", Phineas asked.

"I'm sorry Phineas. We're probably gonna fail.", he continued. "I really must have messed up with anger and cock being my first moods. Now Roger's gonna go get on the other judges' good sides and we're gonna fail."

He only sighed and banged his head a couple more times before Phineas quickly stopped him saying, "Whoa whoa whoa! I don't think you made us fail."

Heinz looked back at the boy as if just saying by his look that the cheer up was hopeless.

"Trust me. I'm pretty sure the judges were really impressed with our invention! Okay? I mean come on, how many other people come up with empinators?", he tried, offering a smile.

Heinz only sighed and hung his head.

"Only idiots like me...", he groaned, leaning his head into his hand.

"NO. Only geniuses like you.", Phineas corrected. "Mr. Doofenshmirtz, you gotta trust me on this. The empinator is a great title for it, the moods you demonstrated were perfect examples of what it does, and the piece with the brain-wave scans? That was brilliant! You gotta believe that it'll win!"

"Sorry Phineas but all my inventions fail me. Even my giant robot man and he's the only one who hasn't exploded...", Heinz slouched further.

"...Well did you really think you'd win with me?", Phineas asked.

"Well you have impressive blueprints. But...", Heinz shrugged. "I didn't necessarily came into the park thinkin' I'd take a trophy home."

"Well come on. Give me one good reason of why it should fail. Why can't we win?", Phineas went on.

"Uh.. Cause it's my bad luck?"

"There's no such thing as bad luck.", Phineas retorted.

"Well how about the fact that I've had an incredibly long history of losing contests and science fairs and such?", Doof went on. "That failure itself has come to be a close companion to me in a sense that I can always rely on it being there whether I want it or not?"

"Well Dr. D, it's high-time you found out what a great friend winning is!", Phineas smiled. "There shouldn't be any reason we can't come in first! I mean, unless there really is someone out there who's a bit better than us. But come on! You have to at least HOPE you can win! If you go around looking for trouble, you'll only find trouble, right?"

Doofenshmirtz only stared at the boy. It's like you could throw knives at him and he'd still be able to smile. Even if he DIED he'd smile. Always. A permanent ingraining on his face of a smile. Heinz raised an eyebrow in slight curiosity of whether or not he was really talking to an actual human being.

"...Phineas Flynn...", Heinz started to say. "You are probably one of the freakiest people I have EVER met in my entire life. And I know whack-jobs."

Phineas only laughed and thanked for the compliment. Heinz simply shook his head with a smile and a chuckle.

"Maybe this wasn't one of my better ideas.", he joked.

"Ha ha! Well it's gotta be worse than an empinator, right?", Phineas shrugged.

"Heh, maybe.", Doofenshmirtz chuckled and then shrugged. "I dunno, maybe you're right Phin. Maybe we do have a chance at winning."

"That's the spirit!", Phineas smile only brightened.

"Is there anything that gets you down?", Doofenshmirtz asked. "I mean what's that all about? Nothing's made you really upset. Even in front of that Thaddeus guy."

"What do you mean?", Phineas asked. "I was mad at him."

"Ha! Hardly!", Heinz leaned back on the table. "If you were my father, people would be wondering why you were in such a good mood with how you reacted to him."

"Really?", Phineas asked.

"Oh yeah.", Heinz rolled his eyes. "Wheew! You shoulda seen the look on his face when he got MAD! Not angry. Not enraged. No. MAD alone would make you cower in fear."

"What would happen if he was past mad?", Phineas asked.

Doofenshmirtz was suddenly quiet as his face fell into a ghastly stare into his past. His eyes grew wide with the memories and seemed to have permanently frozen there. After a moment, he gingerly picked up the empinator and pressed it to his throat. The ban stayed black but the blood-curdling woman's scream was enough to define what he was thinking. Phineas flinched hearing the scream but got the idea none the less. Heinz finally blinked and then soon tried to calm himself down, rubbing his eyes as he cleared his mind of the images.

"Wow...", he said after he removed his hands from his ears. "That bad?"

"Oooohhh yeah... The beat- I-I mean the-", he sighed. "I just can't even start on THAT emotionally scarring back story."

"'THAT emotionally scarring back story'? What you mean there's MORE?", Phineas asked.

"Oh plenty.", Heinz said, finally looking back through the park. "I could probably write a pretty thick book of them."

"Wow... Like what? If you don't mind me asking."

"No it's okay. I normally tell my nemesis about it. But things like, when I was young and in Gimmleschtump, my family had lost their lawn gnome and I was forced to stay out in the yard. Day and night all year around. I lost my friend, Balloony, during this and then later when I was finally a bit too big to be a gnome, my mom was expecting a baby girl and was knitting dresses but then we got a boy, my brother Roger, and I was forced to wear the dresses for the whole year while Roger had my hand-me-downs.", he explained. "I don't normally talk about my parents as much as I just talk about what I've personally been through."

"Wow. You really had to do all that? That dress-thing must have been horrible!", Phineas commented.

"Yeah but by the 3rd year after wards, the laughter finally died down."

"Ouch..", Phineas winced.

"Typical.", Heinz shrugged.


	4. Chapter 4

"All contestants are asked to come to the judging stage as we announce the winner.", an announcement said over the microphone.

"Oh cool! It must be time!", Phineas smiled.

The boy scooped up the empinator and started to run off to the stage but stopped and looked back at Heinz who only had his arms folded with an uneasy look on his face.

"...You go on Phineas I uh.. I think I'll wait here.", he called out.

"...Dr. D, you should come on over.", Phineas suggested, as he walked back over.

"But what if we lose? What if we don't win? I'm just gonna drag us down...", Heinz sighed, looking off.

"Mr. Heinz, you gotta trust me. I just KNOW we can do it. But you can't win anything if you keep letting your past hold onto you like that.", Phineas encouraged. "You need to let it go and forget about it.."

Heinz only sighed, seeming not to move. He thought about what all the young boy had said. The work they had put into the machine and how it actually worked. Nothing had thwarted him yet and Phineas was just so...optimistic about it. He never heard anyone telling him to let go of his past. Never. He looked back at Phineas who only waited hopefully and finally smiled.

"...Welp. I guess we got a trophy to win, huh?", Doofenshmirtz said, feeling his smile widen a bit more.

Phineas' own returned and the two walked off, both excited for the turn-out. At the stage, other contestants waited eagerly including Thaddeus who bumped Phineas aside to get a bit closer to the stage.

"Hey watch it!", Thaddeus complained. "Make way for the REAL winners, why don'tcha?

Phineas only sighed and then smiled a bit deviously.

"I'm sorry, Thaddeus.", he said casually. "You're absolutely right. Here, let me take your picture, No. 1 Inventor."

He held up the empinator and Thaddeus only stood proudly next to his brother as Phineas snapped the photo. He looked down at it casually.

"Oh yeah. That's a keeper. This is just before you win. I'm gonna have to get one after wards too."

"Heh, fine with me." Thaddeus shrugged uncaring as he blew a bubble from his gum.

"And the first place winner is...", the Judge began to say, taking a moment to build anticipation in the crowd. "...Phineas Flynn and Heinz Doofenshmirtz!"

Thaddeus cackled with delight as he began turn around to face Phineas and said, "Ha! I told you I'd- Wait. Wait.. What?"

His expression fell with dismay and shock and Phineas took the picture with a chuckle of his own.

"Told ya, I'd need another shot.", Phineas smirked and then smiled up at his partner. "Dr. D, isn't this great? We-"  
>He stopped, seeing Heinz's eyes are shut tight and ears covered in fear.<p>

"W-we lost didn't we?", he asked nervously.

"No! No, Dr. D. look! We won!", Phineas explained, shaking his lab coat.

Doofenshmirtz hesitantly looked up and saw Roger holding the first place trophy and looking down at him expectantly from the stage. He nodded to beside him, silently urging him to come up.

"We... We won?", Heinz repeated in absolute disbelief.

"Yeah we did it!", Phineas nodded.

"We.. Oh my gosh, we won?", Heinz chuckled a bit, still finding it hard to believe.

"Well come on!", Phineas urged, pulling him by the hand. "Let's go!"

"I-! I can't believe we won!", Doof continued, following Phineas. "I never won anything!"

"Yes you did. Right now!", Phineas only complied as they came up stage and received the trophy.

Roger stepped up a bit closer so only Heinz and Phineas could hear as the crowd gave a cheer, "Good job, Heinz. I guess I owe you an apology for teasing you earlier."

"R-really?", Heinz asked.

Roger held out a hand and after staring at it for a moment, Heinz happily grabbed it and shook.

"Thanks Roger.", Heinz smiled. "That.. That really means a lot to me."

"Figured.", Roger nodded a bit and then returned to his position with the other judges as Phineas and Doof walked down.

After the crowd dispersed, Phineas came up to Thaddeus and Thor before they started to climb into their mom's car.

"Hey Thaddeus!", Phineas called out as he came up.

Thaddeus only turned around, obviously still sore about the loss. He was somewhat surprised to see Phineas hold out his hand in a friendly gesture.

"Come on. Let's be good sports, eh?", Phineas offered.

After a moment, glaring down at Phineas' hand, Thaddeus looked back up at Phineas, as if to make a smart remark before smiling a bit and extending his own in return. Just before his hand reached Phineas' though, the other hand was snatched away.

"PSYCHE!", Phineas gave an evil smirk at the boy who only stared back with a dropped jaw as Phineas began to indulge in some dance-gloating. "L-O-S-E-R! Who's the loser? You are? That's right! Let's boogie!"

Heinz came up with an evil chuckle and the two high-fived each other.

"Ha ha! Sorry Thaddeus! I mean, not to go rub it in your face or anything but.." Phineas shrugged and picked up dancing and singing with Doof.

_"We're the ones! Yes we're the stars! Not hairdo kings or fashion czars! We're fabulous!_", they began to sing.

Thaddeus only fumed underneath the two's gloat-fest before he stormed into the car and slammed the door shut behind him. Phineas and Doof broke down into a fit of laughter. Even to the point of having to fall to their knees as Phineas held his side in pain and Doofenshmirtz rolled about the ground, kicking his feet in delight.

"Ow! Ha ha-ow it hurts!", Phineas cried between laughs.

"I know! Ha ha ha!", Doofenshmirtz agreed. "I mean that look was just PRICELESS!"

"Ha ha! No I mean really! Ha ha ha ha! It hur-hurts!", Phineas couldn't help but still laugh as tears fell down his face. "I-I-! I pulled a stomach muscle recently! Ha ha ha!"

Doofenshmirtz cracked up even more, pounding the ground as he laughed out, "OH NO! HA HA HA! You poor soul! HA HA HA!"

After a moment, they finally calmed down a bit into quiet giggles till it finally died away. They sighed, allowing their innards to rest a bit before they looked at each other and broke back out into laughter again.

"No! No that's it!", Heinz finally said, forcing himself to stand up. "No I gotta go use the bathroom!"

After bladders were back in control and organs and muscles were mostly relaxed, the two went back to their table and began to clean up though a small argument arose.

"Nah, I'm serious.", Phineas said, pushing the trophy closer to Dr. D. "You deserve this! This is your best day ever. I already have plenty of my own."

"Yeah but Phineas if it wasn't for YOU and YOUR plans, I would've lost!", Heinz argued pushing it back.

"No come on. Mr. Heinz.", Phineas said laying his hand on the trophy and looking up at the man. "It's yours. It's all yours. This is for YOU and only you. It's the whole reason why I really wanted to win in the first place."

"But-"

"If I take it with me, you'll be ruining my day more than making it awesome. It's for you and I want it to be yours."

Heinz smiled and took the trophy, unable to argue the point with that.

"Thank you Phineas.", he said, feeling very grateful. "This.. This whole day's really meant a lot to me."

"Well then my mission is completed.", Phineas joked.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey, since we're done and all, is your ride here yet?", Heinz asked.

Phineas paused for a moment, having to recall himself on the fact that Candace WAS supposed to be picking him up. He looked about the park finding no trace of his sister nor any of her friends.

"Uh... My ride's not here but.. Well my sister's at a party and my parents and brother had to go take care of our grandfather.", Phineas shrugged. "Why?"

"Well I was thinking, if it was alright, if you would like to come over to my place. I've had a lot of fun building things with you, I thought we could keep it up back at my lab before you had to go home."

"Well...", Phineas trailed off, thinking of Candace and exactly how long she'd be wanting to hang out with Jeremy, what with how long she already drools over him in any given day. "...Yeah I guess so. I mean Candace can just call me."

"In your words, 'awesome'.", Heinz joked.

The two laughed and walked into the parking lot where Norm stood patiently by.

"Hello, Sir!", Norm greeted cheerfully as Heinz got closer.

"Hey.", Heinz waved casually.

"This is your robot?", Phineas exclaimed, running up to get a closer look in excitement.

"My robot man, but yeah.", he shrugged.

"I'm Norm!", Norm introduced himself.

"That's so cool! He's huge! Hey wait a minute!", Phineas paused, his face turning into confusion as he looked closer. "I've.. I've heard that voice before. From Norm the Minotaur."

"A minotaur?", Heinz repeated. "There's no such thing."

"Yeah but.. But Ferb and I were racing through downtown and this giant half man, half bull, began to chase us and he said his name was Norm. It was only about a month ago.", Phineas explained, turning to the mad doctor in confusion.

"A month? That's when I first made him!", Heinz exclaimed. "So that's where he wound up. I was wondering how he got into the museum."

"How serendipitous!", Phineas smiled, looking back up at him.

"Welp Norm, time to head home.", Heinz said with a shrug.

"Did you win?", Norm asked as he transformed into a tow-truck.

"Yes. Yes we did.", Heinz smiled as he climbed into the driver's seat.

"Wow! Norm, you're pretty cool for a robotic minotaur-like man!", Phineas commented as he climbed in.

"Yay!", Norm's lights lit up for a moment with delight.

Phineas chuckled as Heinz only rolled his eyes and the two drove off.

_Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorperateeed!_

Phineas chuckled, hearing the jingle from the empinator as Heinz wore it when they pulled into the building's garage and asked, "That's your jingle?"

"Yeah, I really have to write the rest of it sometime.", he shrugged.

"I thought it was pretty good by itself.", Phineas smiled.

"Heh, thanks."

When they walked into the building and took a small elevator ride, Heinz stopped Phineas from walking out for a moment and held a finger to his lips to indicate that they had to be quiet. He carefully looked down the halls and gestured for Phineas to follow as they snuck down the hallway. Phineas was curious for the sudden caution. Was his wife mad at him or something?

"Okay, it's right here.", Doof whispered as he pulled out his keys to unlock the doors.

He suddenly flinched as they heard a woman clear her throat and looked behind himself to find Vanessa standing not too far away, leaned on the opposite wall with a deep glare on her face aimed at Doofenshmirtz.

"Dad?", she asked.

"Oh, hi Vanessa!", Heinz chuckled, quickly turning around, hiding Phineas.

"Vanessa?", Phineas asked, coming around.

"Phineas?", she asked, equally surprised.

"Hey! Long time no see!", Phineas smiled, shaking hands with her.

"Yeah tell me about it. Looks like you made off nicely after Paris.", Vanessa chuckled.

"Wait, what?", Heinz asked, looking at the two of them.

"Dad, remember when your giant water balloon hit me and knocked me off the Tokyo Tower?", she asked.

"Yeah?"

"The airplane that rescued me belonged to Phineas.", she smiled down at the young inventor.

"Sorry, I guess I should have told you if I knew that THIS Vanessa was your daughter.", Phineas chuckled.

"Vanessa, I thought you said a handsome, suave, and smart guy named Ferb saved you.", Heinz said, folding his arms across his chest. "What, were you lying?

"Handsome, suave, and smart?", Phineas repeated. "Well Ferb is pretty savvy with his tools but.. Vanessa, I didn't know you thought Ferb was handsome."

Vanessa couldn't hide her blush and her embarrassment though she attempted by crossing her own arms across her chest and glaring at her dad and complaining, "Dad, I thought you promised me you weren't going to go into the lab this weekend!"

"Oh Vanessa, come on! I met Phineas down at that inventing competition and we just hit it off so great, I thought it'd be okay if we did a little more.", Heinz said, scratching the back of his head guiltily. "Please?"

"Dad, you promised me!", Vanessa held down her side of the argument.

"But it's only for the day. Phineas lives all the way in the suburbs! It's just this once! I promise, no inators!"

"You PROMISE?", Vanessa asked skeptically as she raised an eyebrow in question.

Heinz held up his right hand with his left over his heart while saying,

"I PROMISE. NO inators."

Vanessa thought it over a bit, her face unfaltering. She glanced down at Phineas but mainly kept her attention on her father.

"...Alright. But if I find ANYTHING exploding, I'm totally going to get Mom!", she warned before storming off.

Heinz sighed a bit with relief as he leaned against the door for support.

"Good! She actually bought it.", he said quietly. "I'm telling you, you're some sorta good-luck charm. Y'know that?"

He quickly unlocked the door and the two walked into the main laboratory Heinz worked in. Phineas looked around at the large room. It was even bigger than his backyard, minus the endless sky, and everywhere was beakers, blueprints, models, and various machines and computers all about the room.

"WOW!", Phineas gaped breathlessly. "This place is HUGE!"

His voice echoed through the room and Heinz chuckled, finding it amusing for such a smartypants to still act like a little kid.

"Well I've seen bigger but yeah it's good. Sorry for the mess. I don't normally have visitors here.", he added with a shrug.

"No it's cool. It's a lot better than my room.", Phineas joked, looking about the place excitedly.

"Ha ha! Well at least I have that.", he shook his head with a smile.


	6. Chapter 6

Meanwhile in Phineas' backyard, Perry rested peacefully on the grass underneath the giant tree. He was finally getting his day off and everything was going so.. Perfectly. Unfortunately he should've guessed it would've been interrupted soon as his watch began to beep. Perry looked down at it and scowled.

'Oh come on! Today of all days?', Perry asked himself before standing up and placing his hat on his head. He pressed a secret button in the tree and jumped down into the hidden tubing and slides into his hideout below the house. As he landed in his chair, Monogram was already on the screen, obviously panicked about something.

"Agent P! Good! We have a terrible emergency! As it turns out, your owner Phineas Flynn has met your nemesis Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Ordinarily we wouldn't care cause it's not like they'd ever really be able to interact much beyond that silly little inventing competition but Phineas has ACTUALLY gone to Dr. Doofenshmirtz's evil lair and is WILLINGLY going to spend the rest of the day with that evil man!", Monogram briefed him.

Perry's jaw dropped. Phineas? With his nemesis? Sudden flashbacks of Perry's trip to the other dimension began to take over the small monotreme's mind as he was thrown back into a frenzy of fear and panic.

"This could only mean two things as I'm sure you're aware! Either he remembered his adventures with Doof into that alternate universe and has turned to the dark side or Dr. Doofenshmirtz had discovered your host family and is holding Phineas hostage! You have to go find out what's going on and put a stop to all this! IF, by chance, Phineas does NOT know you're his pet AND a secret agent, we're all off the hook on it. But if he does... I think you already know the consequences.", he offered a weak shrug as he stared down at the shocked agent as Perry tried to calm down his hyperventilation and stress. "I'm sorry Agent P. But it's all we can do."

Perry gave a small nod before Monogram disappeared from view and he quickly ran over to his helicopter. He knew he'd have to be careful NOT to get caught this time and only prayed that this wasn't the last day he'd ever see Phineas again.

Back at the DEI, Phineas spun around in a chair a bit as the two tried to come up with ideas. Heinz sat on a couch opposite, nibbling on the end of a pencil as he looked down at a notepad with a few suggestions that had been scribbled over.

"I dunno, Dr. D...", Phineas started to say. "I'm drawing a weird blank today. Maybe we're just not really supposed to hang out like my friends and I do..."

"Mm...", Heinz sighed as he racked his brain. "There's gotta be something for us to do..."

The two sighed and sat in silence as they continued to try to think. Phineas paused for a minute, tapping his foot in the air slightly as he thought, when he noticed his reflection in the computer monitor's screen and inspiration struck.

"THAT'S IT!", he exclaimed jumping up into his seat as Heinz looked up. "Dr. Doofenshmirtz! I know what we're gonna do today!"

"Y'know, that kinda sounds like a catchphrase there..", Heinz noted more to himself than to the actual inventor who only got down.

"What if we built a ray that changes the color of your hair, eyes, or skin?", he asked. "Imagine how fun it could be walking around town with like... Purple skin with..uh with-with uh White polka dots and bright red eyes with crazy green and blue hair!", he said, feeling more and more excited by the idea.

"Hmm...", Heinz thought for a moment over the possible result of the situation of them going out looking like that. 'It would definitely attract attention but what if it failed and it stuck to us permanently? Doctors constantly checking to make sure we're not sick not to mention the freaking out his mother would do when he got home. But then again.. The empinator's working perfectly. His designs and his plans and heck Heinz. You even won just by helping! It's obvious the kid knows this stuff so let's try his inventions.'

"Okay.", he smiled. "Sounds like a good idea."

"Awesome!", Phineas sat back in the seat and whirled around to start drawing up the blueprints when he suddenly stopped and thought for a moment. "Hey.. I wonder what Candace is doing.."

"Who's Candace?", Heinz asked.

"My older sister. I hope she's doing okay."

Back at the party, Candace was busy talking with Jeremy when her phone began to ring.

"Oh! Sorry Jeremy. Mind if I...?", she asked, holding up her cell.

"Oh sure it's fine!", he nodded.

"Thanks.", she gave a quick nod and walked a bit off as she answered the call. "Hello?"

"Hi Honey.", Linda said on the other line. "Just wanted to let you know that Grandpa Fletcher is feeling better and we're gonna be heading home now. We should get there by dark. Are you having fun with your brother?"

"Oh yeah. Things are going just fine here.", Candace said. "Phineas and I are doing just fine."

"Okay. We'll be home in a few hours. Bye Candace."

"Bye Mom!", Candace smiled and shut off her phone.

She noticed the time on the front of her cell and thought about the trip back home. She walked up to Jeremy, explained her situation and then came up to Stacey and Coltrane.

"Hey Stace? I think we oughta go back and pick up Phineas. Mom's gonna be home in a few hours.", she explained.

"Oh that's cool. Right Coltrane?", she asked.

"Yeah it's alright with me. Let's get going.", Coltrane nodded and the trio headed out the door.

Once at the park, Candace looked about the closed down competition area for her little brother.

"Phineas?", she called out, finding no reply. "Phineas! Come on! It's time to head home!"

As she looked around, an odd feeling of fear settled on her mind.

"Phineas!", she called again, looking around faster. "Phineas if this is a joke or you made something to turn you invisible, IT'S NOT FUNNY!", still no answer as her panic grew more and more. "PHINEAS FLYNN YOU ARE SO BUSTED!"

Nothing. No one. There wasn't a single person left in the park. For once in Candace's life, she felt absolute fear in the realization that her brother was missing.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Meanwhile, millions of light years out in space, in a large spaceship, Mitch the Alien paused for a moment, and looked over to his arch-nemesis, Meap who was trapped in a small glass cage.

"Do you hear something?", he asked, catching Candace's scream.

Meap only shrugged.

Back on Earth, Candace ran over to Stacey, explaining what the screaming was about.

"...and now he's lost and probably hurt and it's all my fault!", she panicked as tears came into her eyes.

"Well I don't wanna sound mean but I told you, you should've been nicer to him.", Stacey rolled her eyes.

"Stacey! I'm being serious! What if he was hurt or stolen?", Candace said before suddenly gasping as a look of terror and realization crossed her features. "What if the mysterious force that comes after Phineas' inventions, took HIM now?"

"Candace calm down! You probably just didn't look hard enough. I'm sure Phineas is still here. Let's look together.", Stacey said, hoping to calm her down as they began to search.

"Stacey.. I'm really worried about him..", Candace whimpered.

"I know. I'm sure it's all okay.", Stacey reassured, trying to convince herself as well.

Back at the DEI, Perry landed his hover car and quietly snuck into the room. He hid behind some crates as he looked over finding Phineas and Heinz bent over the blueprints. Perry tried hard to keep himself calm but he couldn't help but think that his heartbeat would blow his cover as it pounded in his ears.

'PLEASE don't let him be up to anything evil...', Perry silently prayed.

"So I was thinking that we'd have a fairly good choice of different colors to choose from.", Phineas was explaining. "Not very limited like a lot of 'create a character' games do but we don't necessarily have to go into shades."

"Well all I'm saying is we don't really HAVE to have pink, right?", Heinz asked. "I mean.. We're not perfectly pink colored. People are sort of a uh.. Something kinda like a very pale orange."

"Well that's where we feed our DNA into the machine here, see? It'll register our normal colors and we'd go back to the way we were because our skin's actually pretty closely related to our hair color.", Phineas said. "Or... Do you think that's too much and we should just have an undo button or something?"

"Mm.. No. I've done DNA stuff before. It's not really that much trouble.", he shrugged. "So it'll just basically give us a quick dye-fix and we could always go back to normal with our DNA, then?"

"Basically. I was thinking not so much of dye like hair-dye, cause that stuff could stain your skin, but something like... Like it basically changes your hue. Your body only captures specific light rays to portray you as something else."

Perry let out a long breath of relief. Phineas wasn't doing anything evil. He wasn't being subdued by Doofenshmirtz. He was just doing normal mediocre kid stuff like he does everyday. Perry thought for a moment about just going home and retelling it to Monogram but he couldn't help but feel like he oughta stick around just in case something went awry. He sighed and rolled his eyes.

'Like always..', he thought.


	7. Chapter 7

Back in the park, Candace had searched everywhere with both Coltrane and Stacey's help and was now curled up, under a tree, sobbing miserably to herself. Not her Two-Year-Old whine either. Literal tears streamed down her face continuously as she cried and cried. Not even so much as worried about what her mom had to say so much as worried about what her happened to her brother.

"Candace, it's okay.", Stacey was saying again and again, trying to think of something to calm her friend down.

"No Stacey it's all over!", Candace sobbed, "I'm a horrible big sister! I didn't even really say good-bye! Why didn't I just help him with his project? Why didn't I stay with him?"

"Candace, you can't go beating yourself down.", Stacey said, feeling rather heartbroken at Candace's sight. "Come on, there's gotta be someway for us to find him. It's not like he was the only person who was here!"

"That's right.", Coltrane said. "There's must have been dozens of people here. There should be at least ONE who saw what happened to him."

Candace sniffled for a moment as she tried to clear her thoughts. It was hard, considering the fact that image after image of Phineas being hurt or mistreated or possibly even dead flooded her mind. She had been left in charge of her little brother and now she lost him and hadn't a single clue of where he could be.

'The same little brother I always try to bust day in and day...', she thought miserably to herself. 'Busting my little...brothers...', a thought began to cross her mind. 'Busting.. Phineas and Ferb and... Tried not to... Mandy. Mandy stopped herself from busting Thaddeus and Thor. Thaddeus and Thor! They build stuff too!'

"Coltrane that's it!", Candace exclaimed, hopping up onto her feet. "Mandy Weaver! Her brothers, Thaddeus and Thor, always love to compete in building things! They were here! I still have her number too! Maybe they know what happened!"

She quickly pulled up her phone and speed-dialed her friend. Meanwhile in a house on the other side of town, Thaddeus glared up at his trophy case as Thor mindlessly played games next to him. His scowl deepened as he stared longer at an empty spot where he planned to place the trophy from earlier.

"Thaddeus! Thor!", Mandy cried as she came in with her hand over her cellphone's receiver. "Was Phineas Flynn at the contest today?"

"Tch. Yeah. So?", Thaddeus said, looking back at her, his expression only worsening under hearing Phineas' name.

"Uh.. Do you know who his partner was?", Mandy continued to ask.

Thaddeus only shrugged and turned to face her, "Heck if I know. Some weird, creepy old man with a coat."

Mandy's eyes widened, hearing the description, unable to help but find a disturbing idea of what the man looked like, unknowing of how off she was from the real deal.

"...A creepy old man?", she asked again. "How old, would you say?"

"Uh... I dunno. 40's? 50's?", Thaddeus thought for a moment. "The darn jerks won the trophy instead of me."

Mandy gulped hearing the description, knowing how Candace would react to it. After taking a small deep breath she quickly retold it over the phone and hung up, not wanting to wait for Candace's response. Meanwhile back with our familiar extraterrestrial friends, Mitch looked around again as he laid across the floor, caught in a strangle hold by Meap.

"Okay seriously, where is that coming from?", he asked, hearing Candace's scream yet again. "It sounds like nails on a chalkboard."

"Meap!", his little enemy simply said.

"Oh really? You REALLY think that? Well I'll have you know that you're nothing but a great big-"

"Candace, calm down!", Stacey said calmly, trying to help her friend's hyperventilation. "It's probably not what you're thinking."

"Stacey are you nuts? Do you know how many freaks there are in the world? This is even worse! What if the guy was a molester?"

"Candace, I'm pretty sure that's just a wild accusation!", Stacey said, really not wanting to think further on the word.

"Stacey's right, Candace.", Coltrane said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Phineas is smart. I'm pretty sure he would know how to tell who's bad to be with and who's not."

"But-! But-! But-!", Candace stammered.

"Come on, Candace.", Stacey said, helping her walk to the car. "Let's try the police station. I'm sure they could help us out."

As they walked into the car and drove off, Candace stared out her window in fear and worry. She could only pray that her little brother was okay. Back at the DEI, Perry toyed with a small deck of cards he had brought along while Heinz and Phineas chatted as they worked.

"So you've actually met my mom before?", Phineas asked.

"So you've actually pulled together PFT?", Heinz retorted with a chuckle. "Yeah, I knew Linda back in high school and after that, I only met her ONE other time but it was... It was a pretty embarrassing back story."

'Embarrassing? HIM?', Perry thought. 'This from the same guy who openly lives with being an idiot who roller skated into the toilet. How could ONE back story be noted as embarrassing for HIM? He's gonna have to tell me this one sometime.'

"Embarrassing?", Phineas repeated. "How?"

"It's...not really one I should tell you at this age.", Heinz said. "I mean I could think of ONE person I'd tell it to but until you're older.. I don't really think so. Sorry, Phineas."

"Nah it's okay. I hear a lot of stuff like that actually.", Phineas shrugged. "But, not quite put like that. It's normally asking me if I'm too young to be doing what I'm obviously doing at my young age."

"Well trust me Phineas, I KNOW you'd be WAY too young to hear that back story. Maybe ask your mother, but I doubt she'd wanna talk about it either."

"Weird.", Phineas simply said, trying to imagine what could possibly have been so embarrassing that even his mother wouldn't wanna talk about it.

Finally, they had finished their invention and were ready to test it out. It looked like a small white ray gun with a dish on one end and a small screen with a couple of buttons right above the trigger.

"Cool! That didn't take long at all!", Phineas said as he inspected the machine.

"Well of course not with your brilliant ideas for compacting!", Heinz complimented. "A lot of my inventions are really big and bulky but this, this has really been a learning experience on my part."

"Me too!", Phineas smiled "So let's test it out!"

Perry crouched up from his hiding spot to look over at Phineas and Heinz, curious if the machine worked as well as they were making it sound.

"What kinda colors do you want, Dr. D?", Phineas asked, pressing a button, causing a small chart of body parts and color graphs to appear in a holographic display in front of him. "I'm gonna my hair a sky blue, my eyes a dandelion yellow, and have green skin."

Heinz thought for a moment before shrugging and answering, "I don't think I'd really go for something quite so...extreme. Uhm... I've always been curious of what I'd look like with black hair and green eyes though."

"Aw come on, Dr. D, live a little!", Phineas urged.

"Mm...", Heinz scratched his head, not really used to the whole idea. "Alright... How about... neon green eyes and reddish-black hair? Like.. Like how most people make black with a blue shine on silly cartoons? It's black with a red one instead."

"There we go!", Phineas smiled as he began to punch in buttons and mess around with the charts, aiming the machine at a mirror to hit himself with.

"Hey Phineas, are you sure this stuff isn't gonna stain us permanently or anything?", Heinz asked as the ray began to warm up.

"Actually I've thought over the prints as we built it, and that IS a very likely possibility.", Phineas said, happy all the same but only causing strife in Heinz.

"WHAT?", he asked a little too late as the ray fired a beam and it bounced off a mirror and zapped Phineas.

Instantly the young boy's hair was blue, his irises had changed to yellow and the skin was a deep, nature green. He looked over himself in the mirror as Heinz and Perry gaped at the odd sight. Unable to help touch his skin a bit as a reminder it WAS skin, he began to laugh at himself and spun around just for the silliness of it.

"This is so cool! All my favorite colors!", he laughed before turning to Doof and holding up his thumbs. "Check it out! Green thumbs!"

Heinz forced a weak chuckle before gesturing that he wanted the machine, "Yeah yeah. Nice. Can we see if it's stained or not now?"

"Oh Mr. Heinz, you gotta relax a bit! I'm sure I'm just fine. Let's do you now!"

"I need to relax? Look at you, with your proper titling. I'm not a senior or anything ya know. Most kids your age just call me 'Doofus' or 'Schnitzle' or.. 'Creepy old man', even.", he shrugged. "All I'm worried about is you going home and your mother flipping out at me!"

"Oh I'm pretty sure Mom would be fine with it. Candace is really the one to get over excited.", Phineas chuckled. "Seriously, there's no harm in it. Try it out!"

Heinz only sighed, and shook his head. He began to rant about how Phineas seemed to just be so uncaring of any consequences and how someday he was sure they would bite the young boy hard. But as he continued to ramble, Phineas simply began to press button on the machine and zapped the older male.

"I mean seriously, who rai-", he stopped in mid-sentence as he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror and saw what had happened.

His eyes grew as wide as Phineas' smile as he took a step closer, wondering if it really was him for a moment. Sure enough it was and surely enough, nothing seemed to be chemically wrong wit his body.

"You were saying?", Phineas simply said as Heinz turned around to face him.

Heinz was silent for a moment, not really sure how to react. He had just been involuntarily experimented on and the kid was just smiling about it. He thought for a moment about being mad at Phineas for doing such, but again, it's not like either one was sprouting horns or falling ill. He looked back at his reflection again and then couldn't help but kinda smile.

"Well I don't seem to be growing any horns or anything...", he kinda half-joked to himself.

"Yeah. Too bad we can't grow wings though. Now THAT would be cool!", Phineas said, excited by the thought.

"Yeah.. But you gotta admit, I DO look pretty good with black hair, right?", he asked, earning an eager nod. "Ha ha! Okay okay. Sorry for being such a worry-wart. I'm just nervous about new things, kay?"

"Hey it's cool, Doofus!", Phineas said. "The thing to remember is that if you only tried one thing, Life would easily get boring."

Doof couldn't help but chuckle in agreement, "There's some truth in that. ...Hey! did you just call me 'Doofus'?"

Phineas laughed and replied, "Well YOU said I could do that!"

"Yeah but I think you know not to ACTUALLY call me a doofus!", Heinz chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"Alright alright, Heinz.", Phineas chuckled. "Sorry. Couldn't resist."

"Yes. Yes you could've.", Heinz joked, folding his arms across his chest. "It's not like you would've died."

"Sorry.", Phineas shrugged apologetically. "Hey! Let's go show everyone!"

"Out in public?", Heinz asked.

"No. In a small cubicle. Yeah out in public!", Phineas nodded. "We could like, start a fashion trend or something!"

"Uh, heh heh.. Uh NO.", Heinz was firm in his decision. "Why on Earth would we wanna parade around like freak shows?"

"Cause it's awesome! I mean what's the point of making anything, if you don't show off a bit?", Phineas asked. "Come on, it'd be great!"

Heinz sighed, knowing that if he argued, he'd not only be arguing with a 10 year-old, but also he'd lose the argument anyway.

"Alright. I'll go out. But YOU gotta take off the green skin AT LEAST.", Heinz bargained, causing Phineas to look at him quizzically. "I mean first of all, it really just doesn't look right and secondly, people are either gonna think you're some freaky alien-kid or INCREDIBLY sick and scientists will rush you off for experiments and such and I mean really, Phineas. Living large is one thing but I'm pretty sure even YOU have your limits."

Phineas simply chuckled and began to play with the machine saying, "Okay. That's a fair deal."

After changing his skin and going back to normal they sat out for the town. Meanwhile, Perry snuck out of his hiding space and quickly dashed through the DEI, not really concerned of Phineas, but instead more concerned about finding a bathroom soon.


	8. Chapter 8

As they walked around the town, attention was obviously noticed, what with Phineas' bright eyes and colors but so far, not a whole lot of attention was aroused.

"See? Nothing to worry about!", Phineas reassured. "And not wanting to rub anything in, but nothing is stained on us either. My skin's fine. Everyone's fine with it. We're just hanging out and looking around."

"Yeah.. I guess you got a point.", Heinz shrugged, looking at his reflection in a passing by store window. "Still looks pretty weird though."

"Uh, excuse me?", a young girl with black and red hair asked Phineas curiously. "Are you okay?"

"Wha-? Yeah! Why you ask?", he chuckled while Heinz face-palmed himself.

"Well.. Y-you're hair. Did someone spill paint on you?", she pointed out his hair.

"No! We built a recolor ray.", Phineas pulled it out to show. "It takes your average colors and recolors it to whatever you want."

"Really?", she asked.

"Yeah! I chose blue and yellow and my friend, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, chose black and green. Wanna try?", he asked.

"Dude! Set me up!", she nodded excitedly. "Can you make my brown eyes, violet?"

"Of course!", Phineas nodded and zapped her. "If you wanna go back to normal-"

"Oh no. I don't EVER wanna change this!", she said happily, looking at her eyes in a mirror she pulled out of her pocket. "Thank you!"

"No prob!", Phineas gave her a thumbs up. "Looks great on ya!"

"Thanks! I'm gonna go show my friends!", she ran off happily.

Phineas chuckled and as they continued to walk, some other people couldn't help but make remarks.

"Hey Phineas.", a random man said, waving happily. "New look?"

"New invention.", Phineas shrugged, holding it up. "Wanna try?"

"Sure thing, Dude. How about strawberry red hair?", he asked and was soon given it. "Thanks Phin!"

"Later Bro.", Phineas waved as they walked by.

"Who's that?", Heinz asked, staring back curiously.

"Absolutely no idea.", Phineas said, feeling a little unnerved by the thought. "I guess the name's kinda flown around town after so many things over the Summer and what not."

They turned a corner and walked down a busy street as cars waited along side of them to pass the red light. Stacey looked back behind her seat at Candace, who was curled up, staring out the window.

"Candace, you okay?", she asked, earning a slow shake.

"No...", her friend simple sighed. "I feel kinda sick..."

"That's probably her stress...", Stacey reassured Coltrane. "..if not car sickness."

Candace simply offered a sigh and looked at the passing by people out her window. She soon spotted Phineas and Heinz as they were just walking past the car and her eyes widened as she sat up and stared, unable to take her eyes off.

"Candace?", Stacey asked, seeing her friend's sudden actions.

"I... I could swear I'm seeing my brother!", Candace exclaimed, pressing her face to the window, trying harder to see as the two disappeared from sight. "But...", she thought about what she had saw and simply shook her head. "No no.. Phineas' hair is red and that kid's hair was blue."

Stacey sighed, "I'm sure we'll find him soon."

Candace only sighed again and flopped back into her seat and leaned her head to the window. As the duo walked about, something easily capture Phineas' attention.

"Phineas? Whatcha dooin?", Isabella asked, spotting him from behind.

"Isabella?", Phineas asked, turning around. "Hey!"

"Wow! I almost didn't recognize you with that hair!", she smiled, running to catch up.

"Oh yeah! Dr. D, this is my friend, Isabella.", Phineas introduced. "Isabella, this is Dr. Doofenshmirtz. He helped me win in the inventing contest earlier."

Heinz shook hands with her with a weak chuckle, "I didn't really do much."

"Wait, you helped him? Phineas, what about Ferb?", Isabella asked.

"Ferb had to go to England to help Grandpa Fletcher get his legs back to normal.", Phineas explained.

"Oh! Gotcha. So what, did you make a hair-dyeing machine or something?", she pointed to the hair.

"Oh no! That's our recolor ray!", Phineas chuckled. "Wanna try?"

"Nah. I'm good. Not anything against it, but I just kinda like my black hair.", she gave a dreamy sigh. "I think your blue hair looks great with your yellow eyes though."

"Thanks!", Phineas said, not catching a shred of her flirt. "Your hair looks great on you too!"

Heinz had to hold back laughter at seeing the sight of Phineas being as smart as he is and yet completely oblivious to Isabella's obvious affection.

'Oh my gosh. He really IS Linda's kid...', he thought to himself.

"So what was Dr. D's original colors?", Isabella asked.

"Brown hair and blue eyes.", Heinz shrugged. "No big difference."

"That's cool. So, Phineas, if you're here, is Candace in England too or what?", she asked.

"Actually, Candace is at a party with Jeremy. But I'm sure if she wanted to check up on me, she'd call.", he reassured.

"Oh okay. Well I better get back to my mom. Later!", Isabella waved as she ran off, back to her mom who waited a bit a ways.

"You know Phineas..", Heinz began to say as they continued to walk, unable to find it in him to resist the tease. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say Isabella has a crush on YOU."

"What?", Phineas was shocked as his cheeks naturally turned a few shades more pink. "No no. Why on earth would you think that? We're just friends!"

"Come on Phineas. She hands you a big heaping pile of flirting and what do I get aside from a, 'what was this guy's colors?'. She OBVIOUSLY has something going for you.", he chuckled. "It's not like anyone's really noticed me or anything."

"Hey there.", a woman with long brown hair said as she passed by Heinz with a wink.

Heinz simply nodded and raised his hands with a shrug.

"Except for that psycho which...", he paused as he looked back at her. "..isn't necessarily a problem..."

"Do it.", Phineas urged with a smile.

Doof quickly took off to catch up and Phineas chuckled and leaned against a nearby lamp post before digging in his pocket and pulling out a heart-shaped picture of him and Isabella.

"Oh that was close.", he quietly said to himself, feeling relieved.

Back with Candace and Stacey, after giving the cops a description of what Phineas looked like and how they could contact Candace, the duo walked back out and down the street to where Coltrane parked.

"I'm sorry we can't find him.", Stacey said as they walked. "I'm sure the police will though."

"Yeah..", Candace sighed, not really believing what her friend said but instead feeling rather hopeless and a little pissed off at their failing attempts.

They walked in small silence for a while before Stacey couldn't help but notice something, "I have to admit Candace you're handling this pretty well, taking into account how you aren't even freaking out about how your mom will react."

"Oh Stacey, who gives a flip what Mom thinks?", Candace complained. "It's not like she ever card about what Phineas has done all Summer long when he WAS around!"

"I'm just saying. If your mom found out, she'd be pretty upset."

"Stacey be real. If I called Mom right now and told her Phineas had gone missing, I'd place my LIFE on the table confidentially saying that she wouldn't care ONE iota!", Candace argued.

"Hey! You know, you don't have to get all attitudinal on me just because you feel guilty for loosing your brother!", Stacey said, angry about the arising argument and turning around to face Candace.

"Oh so now it's MY fault?", Candace yelled.

"Candace, it's been your fault from the start! If you hadn't looked after Phineas like a GOOD big sister and been there with him at the competition, he wouldn't have gotten picked up and carried away by some freaky pervert!", Stacey retorted. "Instead, you decided to think about yourself and go spend time with your boyfriend who's probably not even really gonna be a part of a permanent relationship with you anyway! I mean seriously Candace, you don't have to try so hard with Jeremy! It's not like high school relationships last forever!

"Stacey, you don't have a single clue of what my life is like!", Candace fumed. "All day long I try like crazy, bending over backwards, losing all shards of dignity I spent so long to build up during the last school year, and looking like a complete psycho to everyone in the entire friggin' world just to keep MY little brothers safe from harm! I try to bust them not just so that I would have the honor and glory of being the older and smarter sister but because I CARE! I LOVE my brothers as hard as you would find that to believe! I love Phineas and I freak out because I love him! I couldn't care less for my mom. She's shown NO love for me AT. ALL! My dad's a moron and just so that way I could calm down and finally relax myself from my brothers, I TRY to give myself ONE day off and completely SHOVE them out of my mind, thinking that Phineas would just be at a harmless silly contest since obviously he's old enough to build roller coasters and go to conventions all by himself, so that way I would stop looking like a freak and actually act like a regular teenager! Now my brother's gone and you decided, of ALL times, to bring up the ONE person who would ABSOLUTELY, 100%, never in a million years, believe that I lost Phineas! But I guess being an only child, of COURSE you wouldn't understand the stress and pressure I'm underneath on a CONSTANT basis, let alone how I'm feeling right at this very moment! I'm about ready to start swearing whether I'm allowed to or not! But you don't know what it's like so you don't care!"

"Candace Gertrude Flynn you listen to me now!", Stacey said, equally on fire as Candace is at the moment. "I DO care! I HAVE been caring! I'm just as scared and upset as you are over the whole ordeal! Yet I'M trying to be like Phineas and keep the situation light! Of course I know your mom wouldn't care but I'm trying to derail your stubborn mind before you end up blowing chunks and sweating blood from stress! But I guess since you're obviously not like your mom, you're like you said your father was. MULE HEADED! If you wanna rot in this pit of yours, fine! I NEVER did anything to deserve being treated like this! Have fun in your pity party!"

With that she turned on her heels and began to march off, leaving off with one last thing to say in addition, "Have fun WALKING home, Flynn!"

As Candace stared after her friend, letting the words sink in, she suddenly felt very alone and very awake to the truth.

"...St-stacey?", Candace called out, causing Stacey to look back with a deep scowl. Candace simply hung her head in defeat and depression. "You're... You're right. I'm sorry.."

Stacey only stared at her longer before finally heaving a sigh, her expression softening. She walked back over and after a moment of staring at one another a bit longer, they embraced each other in a sisterly hug. While Candace cried out on her shoulder apology after apology, Stacey only gently patted her back and kept up the comfort as she let a few of her own tears down.

"It's alright...", Stacey said calmly. "I forgive you."

"Thank you..", Candace whimpered before finally breaking up a bit to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"You okay?"

"Yeah.."

"Alright. Come on let's head to your house. Maybe someone will call.", Stacey offered.

"Thanks. Yeah.", Candace nodded, taking shaky steps to the car with her friend. "Stacey?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"No problem.", Stacey smiled a bit. "That's what friends do. They tell when the other's being a moron."

The two laughed at the joke and climbed into the car.

At City Hall, Roger leaned back in his chair with his feet up on his desk, throwing darts at a dart board. Something was still pestering his mind as he missed the bulls-eye with a couple.

"I don't get this Melany.", he was complaining. "Things like this had never bothered me before! I shouldn't have to care! Heinz is the older brother so he should take care of himself. Why on Earth would I be bothered with him getting that upset for a silly tease?"

"Well Sir, you did say you teased him a lot when you guys were kids.", Melany simply said as she typed away at the computer.

"Yes, I know but I never cared about it when he got upset then. Why should I start caring now? He's a grown man. Sure that song may have been a bit.. Violent.", he threw the dart, somewhere between the outer edges and the middle of it.

"You said it was talking about ripping someone apart.", Melany shrugged.

"But still, he shouldn't have to be such a baby over a silly tease. He HAS broken a lot of things over our childhoods. Even as young adults, I've seen him break lots of things. And besides, HE'S the one with a daughter. I should be the one upset around here! HE'S the one who's been married so why should HE get to throw a hissy fit over some small teases?", he threw a dart and missing the board by several inches.

"Well Sir, you have a successful job. Parents who love you. People adore what you do and you're an all around, swell and handsome guy where as your brother, though he may have had a wife and family, hasn't necessarily been the alpha male. But if it bothers you that badly, you should take a walk and think it over. It's the best choice I can offer you.", his secretary simply said.

"Hmm... A walk? Yeah I think I'll do that.", Roger said, thinking over the idea. "Maybe I'll get something. Take care of the bills and what not?"

"Of course. What else do I have to live for?", Melany sarcastically said.

He got up and threw another dart, hitting it dead on the bulls eye. He quickly took a swig from his coffee mug and walked out of the office and by Melany's desk.

"I'll be back in a while.", he said as he walked out.

"Sure thing, Boss.", Melany said, still typing away. After the door closed behind him, his secretary paused and looked about the room a bit, making sure she was alone before she pulled up a window on her computer and quietly, slowly, opened up her desk's drawer and pulled out a brush. Once feeling comfortable of being alone, she quickly got up and held the end of the brush to her mouth like a microphone, singing and slightly danceing to herself as she played one of Love Handel's hits on the computer.

"I'm gonna rip you up! I'm gonna break you down! Gonna take you to a chop shop down town. You know that you'll be dreading, this android Armageddon...", she sang to herself when she suddenly sat back down and turned off the song, pretending to look busy and bored as Roger came back into the room.

"Oh, I almost forgot my coat.", he said to himself.

'Darn it...', Melany thought to herself.


	9. Chapter 9

Out in the city, in the park, Phineas and Doofenshmirtz continued to walk and chat as Heinz held up a small slip of paper.

"Heh, I still can't believe I've got the phone number of one of my ex-girlfriends.", Heinz chuckled. "Who, coincidentally enough, IS something of a psychopath."

"Yeah, but at least she likes your new look.", Phineas joked. "But speaking of the recolor ray, since it's such a success, I wonder if there's anything else we could build before the day's out."

"Hm...", Heinz scratched his head. "I'm sure there's something we could do before you go back home, but the question is, what? What do we build?"

Phineas kicked his feet slightly, hoping to think of something. Suddenly a delicious smell caught his attention and he looked up to where it was coming from to find a hot dog stand somewhat nearby. Phineas stared at it for a moment, feeling the brink of inspiration just about to come across him. You know, in that annoying way where you have a great idea but you're not entirely sure of what it was just yet when suddenly he had it.

"Dr. D! I know what we can build today!", Phineas exclaimed. "How about the world's biggest, highest quality, and most delicious coffee franchise!"

"..Aren't you a little young to be drinking coffee anyway?"

"Yes. Yes I am. But that's why I stick to decaff.", Phineas shrugged.

"Mm.. I dunno. A franchise might be a bit slow going if you wanna make it world-wide.", Heinz shrugged.

"Oh... Yeah I guess you got a point.", Phineas shrugged.

Heinz stared at the hot dog stand. Not necessarily looking straight at it, but in the general direction when he finally got a great idea himself.

"Or... We could... Ooh! What if we built a mirror that, instead of showing light reflecting off of you, it was your mental reflection? Like, it showed how you really see yourself or anyone else who's in the mirror?"

"Hm.. Well I already messed around with mirrors to make one look like this kid named, Irving suddenly disappears. And we already messed with how color is received with the recolor ray.", Phineas smiled. "That would actually be pretty cool to see exactly how you view yourself and other people!"

Heinz pulled out a notebook and began to scribble down the idea.

"Could we still do the whole coffee thing though? Maybe not a franchise but, the world's best Joe, at least?", Phineas asked.

"Yeah, no, I was already writing that down.", Heinz smiled. "And how about gloves that kinda make you look pyrokinetic? You're not, actually pyrokinetic, but the gloves make things suddenly catch on fire."

"Ooh yeah! And gloves for other variations and we could have a kinetic-war!", Phineas went on, being more and more inspired. "Or we could make a room that holographically alters it appearance and our clothes and we could re-enact our most favorite movies with a fake cast and everything!"

"Oh brilliant!", Heinz agreed, writing it down fast. "Well the store's not too far from here. Let's go ahead and pick up some of the supplies before we head back?"

Phineas agreed and they got up and began to walk out of the park. As they walked, Heinz suddenly noticed Roger a little ahead, not noticing them, and quickly pulled Phineas onto a different path.

"UH.. Why not we go THIS way instead? It's uh.. faster.", Doof quickly lied.

"Huh? Uh.. Okay?", Phineas shrugged.

'Is it National "Annoy Your Brother" day?', Dr D. thought to himself. 'The last thing I need is for Roger to come in and spoil my good attitude, right now.'

After picking up the supplies and getting back to the DEI, Doof and Phineas colored themselves back to normal and began to work on their projects while Norm made some snacks in the kitchen. It wasn't long before they had the holographic movie set sat-up in the room. Phineas suddenly jumped to one side as the red light-saber nearly missed him and backed up while Doof Vader came up, heavily breathing under the mask.

"I'll never give in! You killed my father!", Phineas quoted, fighting off with his own light-saber when suddenly kicked and almost falling over the edge of the walkway into a bottomless pit below until he grabbed the edge and looked up.

"No Phineas. I AM your father.", Doof quoted but then couldn't help but laugh. "Ha ha ha! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I can't help it! It's just too funny sounding with the helmet on! Ha ha ha ha!"

"Ha ha! Alright, alright. Cut!", Phineas laughed as the room was back to normal and Phineas was safely on the ground. "Ha ha! It DOES look kinda weird, considering your voice being so high-pitched and stuff."

"I know!", Doof laughed, taking off the helmet and then twirling the saber in his hand a bit. "Hey cool work on these light-sabers too! I mean every fan-geek in the world would die to have something like th- Oops!"

It slipped from his fingers and went flying through the air right as Norm was coming out into the room with a tray in his hands.

"Who wants-", Norm began to say before the light-saber suddenly landed in the wall next to him, narrowly missing his head.

Norm paused for a moment before walking backwards into the kitchen again and closing the door to prevent any further near-death accidents. Heinz and Phineas only laughed as Doof walked over to pull the saber out.

"Sorry Norm!", Phineas apologized.

"Oh man, that was the funniest thing yet!", Doof laughed. "What say next time, I actually HIT him instead?"

"Ha ha! Come on, I thought you said no evil today!", Phineas chuckled.

"Well that's what you get for crossing paths with..", Doof began to say before placing the helmet back on and causing Phineas to laugh as he spoke. "Doof Vader!"

The thunder clapped loudly as Candace slept sound in her bed. The storm continued to rage on outside as the door to her bedroom slowly creaked open. She turned around in her sleep before a hand reached out and gently shook her awake.

"Nngh.. Hmm?", Candace mumbled, opening her eyes to find her little brother, Phineas. "Phineas? What do you want? It's... not even morning yet."

"Candace.. Could I sleep with you?", her small 4 year-old brother asked. "I can't sleep..."

Candace sighed and lifted the blankets to let her brother in. After settling down the two found themselves comfortable in each other's arms and Candace hugged Phineas close, smiling to herself as she nuzzled his hair a bit, before finally falling back asleep as the rain continued to pour outside.

In the present, Candace was found on the same bed with her brother's pillow instead of he, himself, caught in her arms. She cherished the memory dearly and continued to let the stream of tears to pour out as the rain did, all those years back. Stacey soon walked into the room with Jeremy, who had helped her, Coltrane, and Candace, post up fliers around the town.

"Hey Girl. How's it going?", Stacey asked.

"I'm just hurting...", Candace said, almost silently.

Jeremy came more into the room and sat down next to her, gently brushing aside some of her hair, "You wanna talk about it?"

Candace just shook her head with a, "No... Thanks Jeremy.. I just hope we get a call is all."

"I'm sure we'll get something.", Jeremy reassured and bent down to gently kiss her cheek. "Try not to worry so much, 'kay?"

Candace nodded and gave a shaky sigh. Jeremy and Stacey exchanged glances and Jeremy stood up and walked out of the room.

"I'm gonna go put on some tea.", he said.

"That's a good idea.", Stacey nodded.

After putting away the extra gear at the DEI, Phineas and Doofenshmirtz began to work on other projects as they had planned. It wasn't long till after the world's best pot of coffee was being brewed and the duo began to split up the work on the next project.

"You wanna work on the metal structure of the Mental Mirror or the glass?", Heinz asked.

"Well, I really actually like working with chemicals a bit more than welding. If you don't mind, I'd rather do the glass.", Phineas shrugged.

"Oh sure no problem!", Heinz smiled. "In fact if your gonna be working on that, hang on a sec and you can borrow a lab coat."

Doof walked over to a closet and pulled out a lab coat from inside.

"Wow! Really?", Phineas asked.

"Yeah sure. I got tons of these. Sorry for the scorch mark but it's a little stained like that.", Heinz shrugged and helped him put it on.

The lab coat was a little large on Phineas considering how a little of it dragged behind him and the sleeves reached past his hands. After laughing about the matter and rolling up the sleeves the two sat to work. While Phineas was working on the glass and after a while of welding, Dr. D lifted up the mask to take a breather. He reached out and took a sip from a normal cup of coffee he had when Phineas also sat up from the beakers and leaned back in his chair.

Phineas gave a stretch and lifted up his work-glasses before saying, "Y'know, I'm gonna go get something to munch on. Any suggestions? Dr. D?"

"Eh I don't really have a lot of snacking food but uh, I got some slimjims if you want.", Doof suggested.

"Cool. Want some?"

"Nah. My coffee's plenty.", he smiled and took another sip.

"Kay."

After Phineas had left the room Perry, finding this a good opportunity, finally came out to confront his nemesis. Doof smiled down at the platypus as he sat down the coffee.

"Ah! Perry the Platypus! As usual, you're just on time. And by on time I mean, COMPLETELY LATE!", he said with a slight frown before quickly pulling out a remote and pressing a button, springing a cage trap on him. "Seriously Perry the Platypus, what's up? You're usually much earlier than this! How rude of you!"

Perry only rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest, 'Yeah well what can I do? Expose myself to my owner?'

"Well either way, I might as well fill you in on what I'm doing today. You see I met this kid down at the inventor's competition and we hit it off so great that now we're building all sorts of contraptions here at my place. We're not really doing anything evil though. I promised Vanessa we wouldn't. But surprisingly enough, I'm actually having fun doing this. The recolor ray was cool. That coffee better be good. We had plenty of backfires on that.", Doofenshmirtz stuck out his toungue in disgust memory. "But now we're working on a mental mirror. I kinda wish we were also working on an animal translating machine. It'd be kinda interesting to get your opinion on it after it's finished. And I know what you're thinking. 'Doofenshmirtz, how on earth could you allow yourself such inexperienced help on such complicated matters?' But you gotta see this kid! It's like he's... Like he's Albert Einstein in am American 10 year-old's body! It's crazy! All these ideas are mostly his anyway!"

Perry couldn't help but smile, 'Dude. I knew that a LOOONG time ago. Kid's a flippin' genius.'

Coincidentally, Phineas came back in at that moment, happily chewing on a slimjim.

"Hey Dr. D.", he said when he finished the bite. "What's up?"

"Oh hey Phineas! I just caught my neme-", Heinz turned around to face Perry but found the cage completely empty. "Hey! Where'd he go? I had JUST caught my nemesis and he's already out! I didn't even tell him the evil scheme I wasn't gonna do!"

Perry had broken out of the cage and was back in his hiding place, trying to calm himself down again from the close encounter.

'Okay that was WAY too close!', Perry thought in his mind. 'Of course, I should've known I wouldn't have had the chance to fight the idiot with Phineas around. I'm probably never gonna get to unless Phineas is finally picked up by Candace. I only hope things don't change till then.'

"Well who knows? Maybe he decided not to fight.", Phineas shrugged. "Anyway, why not we get back at it?"

"Yeah... I guess. Sorry it's just.. I have this weird pattern with my nemesis where he would come over, I'd trap him, we'd chat, I try to do my thing and then he does his and escapes the trap. We fight and then he'd beat me and I'd be left cursing him and whenever I don't do that pattern.. I dunno. I get a little anxious feeling. Like when you get slapped on your back a lot so when someone touches you there again, it feels really weird cause you're just WAITING for that pain to strike. You know what I mean?"

"Eh.. I guess so. I mean I'm so used to hearing 'Whatcha doin'?' from Isabella. If I went for a day without hearing it, it'd probably be kinda weird.", Phineas nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah well it's kinda like that with my and my nemesis. I'm waiting for the pummeling and it's not normal for him to just up and leave like that. If he DOES leave during our routine, it's normally because of some silly thing his boss wants him to do.", Heinz explained before going back to work. "It's just.. It's kinda weird he wouldn't this time."

"Hm... Well I'm sure he has his reasons.", Phineas smiled.

Doof gave a shrug and they got back to work. But as they did, a curious question settled onto Phineas.

"Hey Dr. D?", he began. "What is your nemesis like, exactly?"

"Perry the Platypus? Well... He's a platypus for starters.", he shrugged.

"Your nemesis is a platypus?", Phineas asked, looking up from the set for a moment.

"Well he's not like a lot of normal platypuses. He's a secret agent for one. For another, he's actually kinda anthropomorphic."

"Weird.. Especially since I have a pet platypus at home named Perry.", Phineas chuckled, causing Perry to hold his breath in fear. "But at least I know mine isn't a secret agent. He's just a nice, smart, normal platypus."

Perry sighed with relief as Doof chuckled somewhat sarcastically, "Lucky you. MY Perry the Platypus is a real pain in the side. I mean... Well I'll be honest. I'm kinda ambivalent about him. I mean of course I hate him. He's my nemesis! But there are sometimes we get along. Kinda like friends. It's a frenemy sorta thing."

"Heh. Funny. I have a friend kinda like that. His name's Buford. He's the bully on the block but we're kinda like friends.", Phineas chuckled.

"Well.. Just between you and me, I've kinda always felt like Perry the Platypus and I always had something... Well it's kinda like a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship or.. Or like one of those old married couple relationships but instead of love, it's hate. We hate each other SO much that if act like we love each other, it'd be the same as a lovey-dovey couple hating each other.", Heinz shrugged. " "I mean of course I don't LOVE Perry the Platypus. I appreciate him. I appreciate him being there for me and all, but I don't LOVE him. If he blew up, I'd miss him but at least my nemesis is finally done for."

"Hm... Weird. It's not really that strong with Buford and the gang. It's just more like, 'Yeah you give us wedgies, but at least we can all laugh about it and still do fun stuff together.' not mentioning the fact that Ferb can get back at Buford just the same."

"Just Ferb?", Heinz asked.

"Well Baljeet and I aren't really much of fighters and Isabella would but that'd be a little harsh.", Phineas giggled.

"Ooh ouch!", Heinz laughed. "Oh man, I know how that is."

"Ha ha! Yeah! I know, right?", Phineas laughed. "Well the glass is ready to pour. Is the frame done?"

"Oh yeah just about.", Heinz said, putting on a few finishing touches.

After finishing up, Heinz finally sat it up on the table and they carefully poured out the hot liquid into it. Phineas finally took off the glasses and labcoat and sat them aside.

"Alright. All we have to do is wait for the glass to dry which could take... Some few hours actually.", he shrugged with a slightly faded smile.

"Hm... I wonder if there's a fast way..", Heinz pondered.

A moment later they were drying off the surface with the light-sabers they had made earlier. As the heat radiated off the beams and the duo were slowly moving them back and forth, Phineas heaved a heavy sigh. They kept at it and as they did, Phineas began to grow more and more impatient. Like it would NEVER finish if their lives depended on it. Like the day would end before on the surface there was even a thin layer caked over.

Phineas finally couldn't take it anymore and stood up angrily, saying as he did so, "Oh this is taking forever! I'm sorry Dr. D, but if this keeps up, I might just blow a freakin' gasket! There's gotta be a faster way than this junk!"

He tossed the saber aside right as Norm was coming back out of the kitchen, thinking the room was finally safe. The saber suddenly landed even closer to his head on the other side of the doorway. Norm looked back at the saber and then back at Phineas before simply going back in and waiting some more.


	10. Chapter 10

Meanwhile in the bathroom, Vanessa comes out of the shower, wrapping the towel around her and opening a cabinet to find her hairdryer missing. She blinked for a moment and looked in a couple of other cabinets. Some of the drawers. Nothing. Nothing that she needed at least.

"Hey! Where's my hairdryer?", she asked to no one.

Back in the lab, Phineas waved a fan back and forth over the mirror as Heinz used the hairdryer in the same manner.

"NOW we're picking up the pace!", Dr. Doof smiled.

"Yeah. Too bad we couldn't do this faster since you installed that self-destruct button on the pyrokinetic suite.", Phineas noted raising an eyebrow with a bit of a glare towards the doctor.

"Look! It's a habit!", Doof said defensively. "I don't mean to!"

Phineas paused for a moment, turning the fan off. He sat the fan down and picked up a yellow glove and placed it over his hand. He pointed at Heinz and a bolt of lightning flew from his fingertip around to zap Doof in the rear, causing him to jump and yelp in pain. Phineas tossed the glove aside again.

"That's for not taking my advice.", Phineas smirked, resuming his attention to the mirror. "I think it should be done now."

"You sure?", Heinz asked, rubbing where he got zapped.

"Yeah."

They turned off the fan and dryer and lifted the mirror up. It wasn't a very big full-length mirror but it was too big for Phineas to really help hang up so Heinz did so while Phineas directed to make sure it was straight.

"A.. A little to the left. No right!", Phineas said, trying to see it straight. "A. A bit of a tilt.. There! Right there!"

"Sheesh, are you helping me with projects or are you moving in with me?", Heinz half-joked. "You sound like Charlene."

Phineas chuckled and gestured for him to come over, "Well tell me whatcha think."

Heinz walked over to look at himself and then paused and cocked his head to the side a bit. He seemed a bit confused as he took a step forward and looked carefully.

"...I'm thinking that it's not working right.", Heinz simply.

"Why?"

"Well I'm seeing a suave, dark-colored, red-eyed, evil, somewhat handsome sorta guy being ruler of LOVEMUFFIN- The League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investments in Naughtiness.", Heinz said, almost laughing. "There's no way that's me!"

"Well it's supposed to be how you view yourself, right?", Phineas said with a small shrug.

"Oh yeah..", Doof noted with a nod. "Kinda forgot... Darn I look good!"

Phineas laughed a bit, "Well I'm glad for you then!"

"What do you see in yourself then? This oughta be interesting.", Heinz finally said, looking down at Phineas as he looked at himself.

In Phineas' line of vision, he saw something like Ohio Flynn with plenty of cool, helpful gadgets, going on crazy, fun, adventures with Isabella by his side. Phineas kinda smiled a bit, liking the thought plenty well and finding it being rather accurate, Phineas describe it to Heinz, leaving the part of Isabella out.

"Really? Well that'd make sense. Suits you just fine.", he chuckled. "Funny, when I see you in the mirror.. I actually... Well to be perfectly frank, I see a clowny Carebare."

"A what?", Phineas said, almost shocked, but still smiling.

"Well that's what I see! You're so perky and happy all the time! It's not really a wonder!", he laughed.

Phineas also laughed and then smirked, "Well it sounds better than what I see when I look at you in the mirror."

"What do you see?", he asked.

Phineas' smile quickly faded as he looked at the mirror, "...Honestly? ...I see you.. But very small. You're wearing all white. Kinda palish on the skin. And all alone in a black room."

"...Really?"

"Yeah... Kinda... Kinda curled up. Like the rest of the world's crashing down on you and you're left with nothing.", Phineas said.

After a moment of staring, Phineas felt he had to turn his head away. Lest he'd be left feeling as depressing as the picture seemed. Heinz sighed a bit, thinking it over. Odd how a kid would see him as that but after what's been expressed today, should there really be any surprise? He walked over to a table he had been working at and soon came back, placing a cloak over the mirror to hide the images. No one was wiser about what had Perry seen and what he had seen was very different from either one. With Doofenshmirtz, Perry had viewed him as something like the class geek. Dorky clothes. Dorky acne. Just no thick glasses or curly hair. Braces, yes. Very small, and very feeble. With Phineas, it was like seeing a small and American, Albert Einstien.. Minus the crazy hair. Obviously smart, but Phineas' features also showed a great deal of care and goodness. Something Perry wished wasn't exactly covered by a tarp. Ah well. It was his thoughts at least. He had that much.

"...Y'know, I think I'm gonna go see if that coffee's done brewing.", Heinz said after a moment of awkward silence.

He walked out and Phineas finally cleared his mind and looked back at the mirror. He took off the tarp and smiled again at what he saw. Doofenshmirtz came back into the room with a cup and a smile.

"I think it's gonna be the one.", he said. "It smells real good."

"Mm.. I'll say...", Phineas smiled, his nose, catching his attention.

The coffee smelled so rich and good. Almost already throwing the two into a small coffee shop with the live jazz bands and the free poetry, that's often thought of along side a good cup. Heinz gave a small sigh before finally taking a test sip. He allowed the taste to settle into his mouth before swallowing. He made no expression at first. Then his eyebrows furrowed together. His lips pursed as if he was thinking of spewing it back out. He looked down at the cup, as if he had drank sewer water and then looked at Phineas, pulling the cup closer.

"Trust me kid.. You don't wanna drink this..", Doofenshmirtz said. "It's.. It's REALLY bad. Very bitter. Not.. not at ALL what you'd want.."

"Oh.. Really?", Phineas asked, feeling discouraged.

"Oh yeah. Really sure about it.", he nodded. "In fact, I think you should just let me have the pot. I'll take care of it. I'll make sure it's disposed of."

Phineas blinked for a moment when he finally caught on.

"Wha-? Hey wait a minute! You're lying about it!", Phineas exclaimed. "I wanna cup!"

"Oh no way, boy! This is mine!", Heinz smiled, holding up the cup out of reach as Phineas attempted to grab it.

"Come on! I wanna try!", Phineas whined, trying to reach.

"Nuh-huh! It's WAY too good for you!", he laughed.

Phineas laughed as well and then headed for the kitchen and poured his own cup. He took a sip and gave a big sigh as he melted into it's good, rich flavor. It tasted even better than it smelled and it was as simple as that. Unfortunately such a good moment was soon ruined by Vanessa walking in, hair still dripping wet, clothed, and scowling.

"Dad! Did you take my hairdryer?", Vanessa asked, obviously pissed off.

"Uh...", Doofenshmirtz began slowly, knowing the trouble he was in.

"Dad, you know that was my special hairdryer from Tokyo!", Vanessa complained. "And right while I was taking a shower?"

"But Vanessa! First of all, be glad that I AM your father instead of Phineas or Norm going in and getting it. And secondly, Phineas and I had to use it to dry the mirror faster! Look look! Tell me what you see!", he said quickly, guiding her over to it. "Look! Look! See? It's a mental mirror! It shows how you see yourself and others."

Vanessa glanced over at the mirror but soon her attention was caught in it. She stared curiously at the reflection, moving her arm up to make sure it was real.

"...Yeah, you see? It's weird, isn't it?", Doof continued.

"Whatcha seeing?", Phineas asked.

"...I'm seeing me..", Vanessa simply said. "Except I'm in a prison..."

Heinz's eyes widened, hearing this.

"Prison?", he repeated.

"Sorta... Black and white room. Ball and chain on my ankle.", Vanessa sighed. "If this mirror's supposed to show how I see myself... That's pretty accurate."

"Wait... You see yourself as...trapped?", Phineas asked.

"On a number of occasions, yeah.", Vanessa shrugged. "But it's life. I guess I'm used to it. At least I'm not some old ugly hag."

"Mm.. I guess that's true.", Phineas said before handing the hairdryer back. "Here. You can have it back. Sorry we took it without permission."

"Thanks Phineas.", Vanessa nodded before turning to her dad. "By the way, Dad. Did you see Uncle Roger at the competition earlier? I forgot to ask when you got back."

Heinz sighed a bit, obviously irked by the question as did his answer clearly show, "Yes. Yes I did. Not much said. But I did see him."

"Kay was just wondering. I thought I heard he was sick today.", Vanessa shrugged before walking out.

'Yeah when isn't he sick?', Doof thought bitterly to himself.

After Vanessa had left, Phineas took another swig of the coffee before noticing Heinz's disposition.

"...Dr. D? You okay?", he asked.

"Oh yeah. Fine. Peachy keen.", Doofenshmirtz said sarcastically before going back to the notebook he was writing in earlier and looking back through the list. "Why should I be upset?"

"...Well why are you then?", Phineas asked. "Mayor Roger?"

Doofenshmirtz remained silent for a moment. His mind was churning. He looked at the list. At the accomplishments they had gained. Finally an idea settled on his mind. He only wondered if he could pull it off with Phineas being young, impressionable, and smart. Vanessa on his heels. His nemesis prowling around somewhere. And his knowledge and hatred of his brother being the subject of conversation.

"...Yeah.. Yeah Roger's really annoying.", he finally said. "...In fact Phineas.. Now that he's on the mind... What if we uh... What if we built a machine that could... Well have you ever had someone who's annoyed you and you really wished that they understood just how much it annoyed you?"

"Uhm... Not really...", Phineas shrugged. "Maybe once, but I can't really think of a situation right now."

"Well.. What if we made a machine that could.. It helped people understand how much they annoyed you. Make them actually FEEL that kinda... pain they bring on you.", Heinz said, trying to piece his words together right, slightly catching Perry's attention.

"You mean like...empathy?", Phineas asked, clueless to the plot and curious to see if he's hearing right.

"You could put it like that.", the older shrugged.

"So.. You wanna build a machine.. that makes Roger feel how much he's annoyed you in the past?", Phineas asked.

"Yyyyyeeees.", Heinz said slowly, making sure it was all on the fine lines that he could form to his advantage. "Yes. That's completely it! I'm so glad you could relate to me!"

"...Well.. Well I suppose we could do something like that... But how could we hit Roger so he'd understand?", Phineas asked.

"Leave that to me.", Doof smiled a bit. "In fact, I'll handle most of the design. Got a great plan for it. Just follow my lead.. Kay?"

Phineas nodded, buying it all without a doubt. Perry began to piece one and one together and soon saw what was coming, but only hoped he was wrong. He tried to reassure himself that there wasn't anyway that Doofenshmirtz would go that far. Nor would he try to push a kid like Phineas there. He's too simple-minded. It'd never happen.

'...right?', he asked himself, doubtfully.

* * *

><p><em>I don't know if I'm being too obvious about the plot line from here on out, but I hope everyone still enjoys the story. Thank you so much for the reviews and the faves and whatnot. n_n-d<em>


	11. Chapter 11

Using one of their earlier inventions, Doof licked his finger and began to draw in the air the basic layouts of the blueprints, with chalk trailing behind his finger tip.

"So basically,", he began as he began to draw. "what this will do is kinda shock the nervous system in Roger's mind, right where his hormonal glands should be. The inducing shock will pour out sound, pictures, all the basic necessities for him to see MY memories from MY point of view. All the memories I choose of course which would be in another part of the machine. That's what you'll be handeling, Phineas. I haven't really worked out that part yet, but I'm thinking about something you could basically plug anyone's brain into. Like something kinda.. in the line of suction cups and so that way we could pull up my memory onto a computer that would be installed in the side of the machine and I'll 'drag and copy' my memories out of the system and into the beam that would be fired at Roger. See what I mean?"

He looked down at Phineas who was just smiling up at the chalk in the air with a slight chuckle.

"I love that Chalk-spit idea.", he said more to himself than to Doof.

"Phineas...", Heinz said, feeling a little put off by him.

"Hm?", Phineas said, turning his attention to the doctor.

"..focus?"

"Oh yeah right."

"Do you understand the plo- er... plan?", Doof asked.

"Yeah I got it. Place your memories into a shock-beam and send it to Roger's brain so that he'll not only see it in HIS memory but also be able to feel it as well.", Phineas recapped.

"Yeah. Yeah that's about right.", Heinz nodded with a slight smile and waved his hand through the chalk-work, causing it to turn to mere dust.

"Well alright then! Let's get to work!", Phineas clapped his hands together excitedly and began to work out his part, picking up the lab coat he wore earlier while doing so. "Hey you wanna listen to some music while we work?"

"Eh, sure.", Dr. D. shrugged. "Whatcha feeling like?"

He tossed the empinator over to Phineas and the boy put it on. After a moment the ban turned to a brownish color as Phineas' normal Quirky Worky Song began to play. The two began to work as Perry watched closely. Something was irking the platypus, and he was sure it was only gonna spell doom. As they worked, a curious question came to Phineas' mind. He was hesitant to say it aloud but decided to take his chances.

"Uh.. Dr. D.?", he began.

"Yeah?"

"Uh... C-Can I ask something?", he was nervous, knowing the natural result of emotions by the topic.

"Sure, Kid. Fire away.", he nodded as he jot down a few notes.

"...Why do you hate Roger so much?", Phineas finally asked.

There was silence for a moment as Heinz froze. Of course he knew the question would arise sooner or later. It wasn't unusual. After all. The rest of the world saw Roger through rose-colored glasses. Not the clear glasses he wore. Only issue with the response was...

'How to phrase it?', he pondered in his mind.

"Dr. Doofenshmirtz?", Phineas asked as the silence pressed on.

"...I guess...", he began. "..I guess you can say that I've just had.. a bad history with him really."

"How so?"

"Well... Alongside the knowledgable fact that my father had replaced and disowned me with a dog called 'Only Son', Roger easily pushed me out of the entire family portrait. My mom paid little attention to me enough as it is but ever since he was born, everyone was all over Roger. How much he looked like Dad. How much he loved Mom. His good manners and his skill in kickball, which was a direct and easy accessible link to winning my mom's attention and love. But while everyone was always praising him, what did I get left with? The selfish, two-faced, double-crossing, no-good, low-browed, Jerk-Face that's been crawling under my skin before he could on carpet! I mean! Not only did I get beaten up from bullies at school on a regular basis but he did NOTHING to help! Not even a glance! No! In fact, the ONLY thing he'd do about it was ENCOURAGE the punks! He hits on every girl, not only in his schol, but also in MY school when I finally GET the chance to even TALK to one or even merely have one over because of some stupid school project! He's been stubborn and been causing me nothing but trouble through our adolesence and even our adulthood! It's my wedding day. I'm FINALLY gonna get a woman just for me whom I've thought I would love for ever and what does he do? He's snarking all sorts of stupid remarks up and down the chapel and to push things further, GOES AND MAKES OUT WITH THE DARN MAID OF HONOR IN A CLOSET 10 MINUTES INTO THE CEREMONY! He's stolen from our own mom candy and whatnot. He's lied SO much my parents would die of a HEART ATTACK if they ever knew! He not only destroys the piece of art that took me THREE DAYS STRAIGHT, that's right! THREE. WHOLE. DAYS. NO food or water. No bathroom breaks. NOTHING until I FINALLY finished my painting and when he tried to recreate it and I accidentally go and mess it up, because I didn't know he was recreating it, and then WHAT does he do? WHAT DOES HE DO? 'Oh well! There goes a couple of decades.' Has NO care to even CONSIDER if I ever saw it or even calls me up to say, 'Hey Bro! I tried remaking it and some good accidentally destroyed it. Sorry.' Sup with that? And just to add insult to injury, I'M the older brother! Of course though just LOOKING at us you wouldn't guess that! I'M the older brother and he's 10 times more sucessful than I ever been! I've TRIED being good. I've TRIED being as best as I could've possibly been when I was younger but no! I was DUMPED at birth! I had more love from my ocelot foster family! That's right! A bunch of cats raised me and loved me. Not my father! Not my mother! And never. Not once in all these 42 years of my life. Not unless some freak accident had occurred and altered my appearance to something a bit more pleasurable. My brother will never love me. NEVER. Charlene was right. I have every reason in the world to be pissed off. Sure I took it to extreme, but I swear, the best day ever for me would be the day he finally rolls over in his grave! The day he finally chokes on his last breath and realizes what he did wrong before facing DEATH. Do you have any idea of what I'm trying to tell you! I HATE HIM! I hate his guts! I hate his life! I HATE EVERYTHING THERE IS TO HATE ABOUT THAT FR-"

Doofenshmirtz had turned around to face Phineas but stopped dead cold in his tracks. The young boy was staring up at him with huge, wide eyes full of fear. No music playing. It was then that he realized he had let his emotion showed more than intended. And that he had most likely done to this kid, everything he had tried to prevent happening to any kid who got close to him, ESPECIALLY Vanessa. Emotionally scarring them. He felt his heart pound as the heat in his face cooled down and actually felt rather ashamed of what just happened as Phineas only continued to stare like a deer caught in the headlights. Doof finally sighed, closing his eyes and trying to relax his nerves. He raised his hands like he was gonna say something but then gestured as if pushing it aside and grabbed his mug with a bit more of a temperamental sigh and stormed out to the kitchen.

"I'm gonna go get some more coffee.", he muttered.

As Perry watched he didn't watch the actual human who was ranting and freaking out. He was watching, in terror, the creature that was moving inside the mental mirror. It was large but it kept hunched over. It had bloody red eyes with a large, ugly scar over one eye. A long snout like a werewolf's with large, sharp fangs hanging past the jaws, brought up into a snarl as it talked. Doof's normally messy hair was even rattier than it had ever been. The creature had large, torn-up bat-like wings. Large, blood-stained claws hung off the strong arms. A scar even bigger than the one on the eye was laid across the chest. The large furry tail swished as the creature had yelled and smacked the ground, shaking the world in the mirror. The very essence of rage and all Perry could think at this point was that Doof needed his medication and that he should grab Phineas and get the heck out of here as fast as possible. NEVER in all the years Perry had worked with him, had the platypus EVER seen Doofenshmirtz THIS mad. And it was beyond obvious at this point to both Perry and Phineas that Doof's plan was none other than to kill his own flesh and blood, brother. As Doof had marched out of the room, Phineas finally looked from the man to the mirror. Everything he saw, was very different from Perry's perspective. It was the same man. The same man, torn apart by his past. Bloody, bruised, and scarred almost everywhere imaginable and left to do nothing else but gush blood. It really actually made Phineas' stomach churned, staring at such a thing and he had to turn his head away. After a moment of silence as Perry tried to help clear his mind of the image, Phineas began to think over what had been said. He had the answer he was asking for. But it was a bit much. Finally, he knew exactly what to say.

"...I think you're right."

Perry's heart stopped. It must've. He did NOT just hear what he thought he heard. Phineas Flynn did NOT just agree with a crazed lunatic. An EVIL crazed lunatic none the less. Even Heinz popped his head back in, wondering if he heard right.

"...What you say?", Doofenshmirtz asked.

"I think you're right.", Phineas reapted, making Perry choke on his heart. "I honestly do! Dude, if my OWN family treated me that badly, I would've probably killed myself by your age!"

Doof came more into the room, curious of what the younger was meaning.

"Wait wait wait, you REALLY mean this? Honestly? You're.. You're not just mocking me or-or being sarcastic right?"

'Please be sarcastic! Please let this just be sarcasm!', Perry screamed in his mind.

"No. I'm dead serious.", Phineas said determinedly.

Perry could feel himself die inside. Of all the people he loved. Of everyone in his entire family. It was the happiest one he was hearing say this. Phineas. Phineas Flynn. It's like Perry was suddenly thrown into one of his scariest nightmares. As if it wasn't bad enough Phineas and Heinz were hanging out and then Heinz was convincing the young boy to do something evil, but now Phineas was actually agreeing with him to do something evil! And the pain of his heart break didn't stop there as Phineas pressed on further, turning around to face Doof head-on.

"In fact you know, my OWN sister is something of a jerk. Not like Roger but she's always sticking her nose into my business. She's always trying to get me into trouble for NO reason WHAT SO EVER.", Phineas was ranting making it hard for Perry not to scream.

'WHAT THE SNOT? THAT WAS JUST MY IDEA OF HER!', Perry exclaimed to himself.

"She's always running all over the place and yelling and breaking my concentration on my work. I'm actually surprised MYSELF that we managed to build anything. Not so much on the fact that normally it would take us a WHOLE DAY to work on it but still that we get it done at all! I don't even KNOW my biological father and my mom's always thinking I'm just caught up in my own imagination and I'm like, 'No woman! We really built a rollercoaster! I actually shrank down in a submarine and went INTO Candace's body!' I coulda been digested.", he paused for a moment as the thought sunk. "Whoa.. I coulda been digested by my own sister... Anyway. What you went through is ten times bigger than that ever was! I can't imagine what that must've been like for you to live with him!"

"...You serious? You really wanna help me with this?", Doof asked, smiling a bit.

"Oh yeah. I mean after all, I promised you the best day ever right?", Phineas said with an evil grin.

Doof was taken a bit a back by this and Perry was flat on his back ready to die.

"...Wow... I.. I'm feeling oddly proud of you.", Doof said, a tear coming to his eye.

"Are you gonna stand there sniveling or are we gonna get some work done?", Phineas replied, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Right, right. I'm gonna- Yeah. Coffee. Right! Be right back!", Doof said, too excited to really make out most of his thoughts.

Phineas chuckled, rolling his eyes and turning back to his part on the machine as the empinator kicked into his mood. The song being all too fearfully fitting.

_Yes he's eviler._  
><em>More evil than he was before.<em>  
><em>Yes he's eviler.<em>  
><em>And he's bringing it door to door!<em>

* * *

><p><em>...hee hee hee...<br>_


	12. Chapter 12

As the time wore on, Perry couldn't take it any longer. As both Phineas and Doof had left the room for different reasons, the secret agent snuck out of his hiding place. At first he was gonna head at it straight on. But before leaping over the crate, he decided to be a bit more cautious as the fear of Phineas catching him settled on his mind and he eased himself around the side of his hiding spot instead. If he could just come over to the table and find a way to quietly throw them off plan, maybe there's a way this whole thing could turn around. Maybe there's a way Phineas could go home BEFORE they finished. Maybe-

CLANG!

Perry was ready to blow a freaking gasket as he stepped on another button and sprung another trap. Doof was really on the ball for the traps today. He banged his head on the side of the cage in frustration, chattering angrily to himself of his stupid mistake. Nothing was going right. His owner was evil. His nemesis was beyond insane. And now he was trapped in a metal cage with no off-hand chances of easy escaping. And just to make matters worse, Phineas entered the room from the kitchen. The afternoon sun had casted a shadow onto that side of the room and as Phineas walked out with his cup of coffee in hand, smiling down at the monotreme, it all screamed of pure evil and Perry was actually slightly shaking in fright.

"Ah.. Perry the Platypus..", Phineas began with a smirk as he walked over and saw what had made the clanging noise. "I've heard much about you..."

Perry shut his eyes tight, helplessly hoping it really was just a dream and he'd wake up soon when suddenly, Phineas said something that made the secret agent want to pass out from disbelief and shock.

"It's nice to finally meet you!", he held out a hand through the cage with a happier grin.

Perry couldn't be more relieved in understanding the young boy had no clue Perry was one and the same and wanted more than anything to be able to just reach out and have a friendly hand-shake with his owner in the side he's kept secret for oh so long. That, of course, was when Dr. D. came back into the room. The doctor gasped, seeing his nemesis and quickly snatched Phineas back.

"Whoa! Watch out there Phineas! That's Perry the Platypus!", he warned as he pulled the young boy back.

"Uh.. Dr. D.? I was just gonna shake hands with him.", Phineas shrugged.

"Uh-uh. Shake HIS hand and that platypus will flip you over onto your back and have you bleeding within five seconds!", Heinz shook his head quickly, obviously frightened by Perry's past fights with him.

"Oh... O-okay..", Phineas' shoulder's slumped a bit as he looked back at Perry.

The secret agent couldn't help feel something of a stab at his heart, hearing Dr. Doofenshmirtz say that. Yes it was true. Had Doof been the one to try to shake hands, Perry could easily flip him over. But it was his owner he was trying to shake hands with and bitter reality reawoke him to the fact that he was supposed to be a cold and ruthless secret agent like that. Not a warm-hearted, friendly, and caring pet platypus the boy knew. Dr. Doofenshmirtz began to nudge him back away from the cage as Phineas only stared back, sympathetically for the trapped platypus. As the two continued to work, Phineas couldn't help but be slightly distracted as the monotreme watched intently. Once in a while, when he was close enough, the young boy would crouch down for a moment and give a good scratching to Perry. Perry couldn't help but enjoy the attention as he was so very used to and was grateful Phineas cared at least that much. Phineas smiled, seeing the secret agent chatter quietly with a smile. It reminded him of his own platypus back home and made him begin to wonder if Perry the Platypus was really even half as horrible as Dr. D. said he was.

"Hey.. Where's that component I was working on earlier?", Heinz asked, looking about his table.

He turned around to check with Phineas when he saw what was going on and rolled his eyes.

"Ugh! Phineas! Could you please stop playing fraternizing with the enemy?", he complained as Phineas stood up.

"Sorry Heinz. It's just.. I dunno. Maybe it's because I own a pet platypus, but I hate seeing the little guy locked up in a cage like that.", Phineas shrugged.

"Well trust me, I don't exactly like trapping animals myself but it's not my fault the government's using them as deadly weapons. In order to look out for my well being and the protection of my inventions, I HAVE to trap him. ESPECIALLY since you're hear. If Perry the Platypus was a puma, would you still wanna be friends with him?", he asked.

"Mmm... I.. I guess not.", Phineas shrugged again. "Sorry. I'll try to stop."

"Thanks. Now as I was gonna say, do you know where that component I was working on earlier went to? I can't find it."

"Oh yeah, I have it here. I was adjusting the voltage, if you catch my drift.", Phineas said, tossing the part back.

"What?", Heinz said in shock as he caught it. "But that'll-"

"Ha ha ha! I know.", Phineas laughed. "It'll make his brain explode but isn't that the point?"

Doof chuckled as he tossed the component for a moment before shaking his head and turning back to the machine.

"You evil little scamp.", he joked.

"Thank you.", Phineas nodded.

They continued to work and as they did, Vanessa typed away at her laptop in her bedroom. She had her ears plugged so none of the previous conversations had caught any of her attention but one thing did. The clock at the bottom of the screen. The day was moving on and Phineas was still hanging around. Feeling a bit concerned, she quickly finished up her email and paused her music before picking up her cellphone. Back at the Flynn-Fletcher's residence, Candace sighed, feeling like she was ready to give up hope.

"...What if we're too late?", she asked her friends when suddenly the phone rang across the room.

Candace leapt like a freak, stumbled over and grabbed onto the corner of the end table to pull herself up as she quickly snatched up the phone with her other hand and spoke into it frantically.

"Yes? Hello?", she asked quickly.

"Uh.. Hey Candace? This is Vanessa.", Vanessa began, feeling a little worried by the quick reaction.

Candace sighed, feeling like there wasn't much to this phone call. Why would Vanessa, a goth chick, know anything about her brother.

"Oh.. Yeah hey Vanessa.", Candace said, her hopes fading away as she shook her head to her friends who were waiting hopefully and sighed with disappointment. "Sup?"

"Well.. You do know what time it is, right?", she asked.

"Time? It's uh...", Candace looked over at the kitchen clock. "It's about 4:30, why?"

"Well it's just that I noticed it was getting a little late and Phineas is still over here and-"

"Phineas? You know where Phineas is?", Candace exclaimed, getting caught on his name alone.

"Wh-? Yeah I know where he is. He's over here! You mean you have no clue?", Vanessa asked, feeling rather shocked.

"NO! I left him at the park and when I got back he was gone! I thought some creepy pervert stole him! I didn't get a phone call or anything!", Candace explained, getting ready to freak out even more.

Vanessa only face-palmed herself with a sigh, "Daaad..."

"Where's Phineas?", Candace asked again.

"Okay whoa whoa! Calm down Candace.", Vanessa said, knowing what to do now. "I'm gonna drive over, pick you up, and bring you to Phineas, okay? Cause, no offense, but I don't think I wanna trust you with directions to my house with the way you're sounding right now."

"Yeah yeah. I get it. I'm sounding like a fruit loop. Is Phineas okay? Is he safe?", Candace asked worriedly.

"He's, FINE. Calm. Down.", Vanessa said slowly. "Just give me your address and I'll be right over."

After retelling the address, Vanessa grabbed her purse and headed out of the building, making a mental note to seriously bust her father for all this later. In terms of her father, he and Phineas were still working away...mostly. As Dr. D. took his turn and bobbed his head to his "Goody-Two-Shoes Brother" song on the empinator, Phineas, again, couldn't help but get distracted by the platypus. Perry was clinging to Phineas' care as much as he possibly could. He couldn't help though, to fall over onto his back as Phineas continued to pet him nicely. Unfortunately as Phineas reached out further to pet him some more, the cage's hole was far to small for him to shove his elbow through and Phineas wasn't gonna risk his arm getting caught in a cage. Perry stared for a moment and then wriggled his body closer to the edge of the cage and Phineas pulled his arm back and reached through a lower slot and continued the fun time. But work called him back and he pulled his arm back and got back to work. He glanced back down at the platypus once in a while though as Perry only watched and couldn't help but smile. For a secret agent, he sure did like a belly rub.

'In fact...', Phineas thought for a moment.

He looked behind him and found that Dr. D. had walked out of the room. He looked around the room to make sure there wasn't anyone else and crouched down next to the cage, wondering if maybe he should let the platypus out. Just for a moment.

'Just a little bit...', Phineas began to think as he reached out to open the cage as Doof came back into the room with a towel to wipe off some oil from his face.

"Phineas? What are you doing?", Heinz said, glaring down at the platypus.

Phineas quickly backed up, a little surprised at the sudden voice.

"Oh! Uh.. I'm..."

"Is Perry the Platypus distracting you THAT much?", the doctor asked, feeling rather annoyed as he turned his full attention to Phineas.

"Well...", Phineas began, rubbing his arm guiltily.

Doof sighed and walked over. He grabbed the cage and pulled it over to the table he was working at.

"Here, I'll take the distraction away.", he said promptly. "Maybe that'll help you."

"Uh.. Yeah. Thanks.", Phineas gave a weak nod and returned to work.

Doof nodded in return and then turned on Perry. The secret agent only scowled back up at him in return as the doctor got down closer to make sure Perry only heard what he had to say next.

"As for you. I suggest YOU keep your little secret agent tricks to yourself or I'll turn this inator on YOU first!", he hissed. "I'm NOT gonna let you take away this one kid that actually wants to help me."

Perry only rolled his eyes. Like his nemesis could really hurt him much. If anything, Perry would be more concerned about Phineas rather than Doof but that was his opinion. However, with the weird day he's been having, Doofenshmirtz could actually be onto something. This Perry simply decided to shrug off as the duo got back to work. Back with Vanessa, she had picked up Candace and the two were on their way back to the DEI. After the 1,000 thank yous by Candace, they rode in silence while Candace was staring out her window. Finally the silence was broke by Candace.

"...So... So you're 16 and you already have your license?", Candace asked curiously.

"'License'?", Vanessa asked, turning to her.

Candace's grew wide as she eased down into her seat a bit and looked back out the window feeling slightly frightened. The awkward silence fell on them once more and Vanessa, feeling a little awkward amongst the quietness, decided to turn on the radio.

_Doofenshmirtz Evil Cassette Tapes!_

"Uh, sorry. My dad's stuff.", Vanessa said sheepishly as she flipped it over to the radio before rolling her eyes. "I always tell him to keep it on the radio when I visit but..."

_My nema nema,_  
><em>Ooh my nema nema nema,<em>  
><em>My nema nema,<em>  
><em>Ooh my nema nema,<em>  
><em>Now I hate him,<em>  
><em>And he hates me.<em>  
><em>What a wonderful animosity.<em>

As Candace listened, she felt a little pained by how it reminded her of her brother and how mad he might be at her for losing him like this. How much he must hate her for this whole predicament. She looked down at the radio, almost ready to cry before turning to Vanessa.

"Uh.. Can I..?", Candace began before Vanessa cut in front.

"Yes! please do so!", she rolled her eyes again, annoyed and embarrassed. "I'm gonna kill my dad, I swear..."

Candace flipped around on the radio stations. Some were nice. Some she knew would be good to help lift her spirits but she searched some more before finally settling on one. One that actually made her feel okay to cry about today.

_Summer!_  
><em>It's ponds and pools and garden hoses and trying to beat the heat.<em>  
><em>Summer,<em>  
><em>It's bicycles and roller skates and even just bare feet.<em>  
><em>It's also...<em>  
><em>Surfing tidal waves, creating nanobots, or locating Frankenstein's brain!<em>  
><em>Finding a dodo bird! Painting a continent! Or driving our sister insane!<em>

As Candace heard that last verse, she leaned against the window, looking up at the sky as she felt the realistic stab of the song and allowed a tear to streak down her cheek. But as the song went on to describe Summer some more, she suddenly noticed something. Something she hadn't ever noticed before.

"...Hey! Isn't that Phineas' voice?", she asked.

Back at the DEI, Phineas and Heinz were finally finished. The large inator stood proud as they stepped back to admire their work. Doof was almost bouncing with anticipation at the idea of it actually working. Of this whole crazy scheme finally closing off one of the many sources of his many a sad back story.

"I'm getting tingly!", Heinz said almost in a fangirlish manner.

"Welp! Let's roll it out!", Phineas smiled as he tossed his oil-stained rag cloth behind him.

After pushing the inator out onto the balcony, as well as Perry's cage for a front row seat, Dr. Doofenshmirtz quickly ran back in to grab a pair of binoculars and came back out with his wide smile still on. He sat them up to his eyes and looked down at a corner of the street straight across from his building.

"Ooh! this is gonna be good!", Heinz was snickering. "Cue Roger coming around the corner on his Sunday afternoon walk, now."

At the moment the words left his mouth, Roger came around the corner as predicted and Phineas pulled the lever to warm things up. Meanwhile, down below, Roger paused for a moment in his walk as he took a moment to look at his thoughts. Down the street he saw a couple of young boys. One had the other in a headlock and was noogying him. He cocked his head a bit as he watched the boys laugh and joke with each other.

'...See if I did that with Heinz, wouldn't he get mad?', he asked himself.

Phineas, with a wide and malicious smile on his face, handed Heinz the start button with a slight bow.

"Care to do the honors?", Phineas asked.

"With pleasure!", Heinz said with a smile as he grabbed the button and looked down at Perry. "Now watch in absolute horror, Perry the Platypus, as the end of my annoying brother, finally comes!"

Perry looked down from his cage in fear, Phineas looked over the balcony with a calm smile and Dr. Doofenshmirtz was grinning madly as he brought the binoculars back up.

"Annnnd... NOW!", he said finally, pressing the button with a maniacal laughter.

The beam flew out as expected and flew across the street, zapping Roger square in the head.

"AH HA HA HA! YES! HE'S-", Heinz began to say before he saw something else. "He's..not exploding. Why isn't he exploding? He's- He's coming up to my- Hey wait! Where is he-? Wh-why-?"

Perry was just as shocked as he tried to look further down to see that, indeed, Roger Doofenshmirtz had crossed the street and was walking into the Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorperated building. Phineas was the only one in the room that was smiling. As Heinz whirled around and ran for the door to meet up with his brother and inquire what was going on, Phineas only watched him for a moment before casually walking behind him, his grin never faltering on his face for even a twitch. As Heinz ran down the stairs, Roger ran up and the two met halfway on them, surprised to see the other there.

"Roger?", Heinz asked, catching his brother's attention.

"Oh! Heinz!", Roger smiled a bit as he looked up.

There was a moment of silence as the two caught their breaths from the run before Heinz finally asked, "What on earth are you doing HERE? You NEVER visit."

"W-well actually I uh.. I wanted to come over to talk to you about something.", Roger was beginning as he scratched the back of his head in slight guilt.

"...You wanted to talk to me?", Heinz asked, finding it hard to believe.

As the two talked, Phineas watched from a floor above. He leaned against the railing and gave a slight nod as he listened.

"Yeah.. It's..", Roger began. "I've... Kinda been a jerk to you in the past, haven't I?"

"'KINDA'?", Heinz keyed in on flatly, with a raised eyebrow as he leaned against the railing.

Roger laughed a bit, feeling the verbal stab and practically felt himself swallowing the harsh words, "Ow! Wow... NO sympathy, whatsoever."

"Fresh out.", Heinz retorted, obviously still mad as he tried to figure out how on earth he was standing and talking to his brother.

"Ouch... I.. I deserve that. I'll be honest.", Roger shrugged. "I.. Well I got to thinking in my office earlier about how mean I was to you in our childhood. All the bullies and the sarcasm and the teases..."

"Stealing my girls, blaming me for family troubles, destroying anything I was working on, insulting me about the physical relations between me and my daughter right in front of me and Charlene.", Heinz continued with a roll of his eyes.

"I did that?", Roger asked, finding himself surprised as his brother gave a firm nod. "Wow... I'm.. I'm very sorry. Really I am."

Heinz blinked for a moment. Was this true? Was his younger brother, the same man he was just complaining about hating to the ends of the earth in front of Phineas, actually APOLOGIZING to him? To really seal the deal, Roger even held up a hand for a friendly shake as he offered a weak smile.

"Forgive?", he asked with a look of hope.

Heinz stared at the hand for a moment. It was real. It all was really happening. His own brother was sorry for what had happened to him in the past and now here he was, hoping to be forgiven. Should he stick up his nose and say, "forget it pal"? Should he hurtle insults at him and tell the man to never come to his home ever again? As Phineas leaned a little further over the railing, wondering what the man was going to do, Heinz finally relaxed a bit and then sighed and shook his head with a smile.

"...Let's both be honest. We were both jerks.", he finally said. "I've been holding it all as a grudge for all these years."

"Yeah, but I was the cause of that grudge.", Roger pressed on.

"And I forgive you for that.", Heinz finally said with a nod as he shook hands.

Roger seemed to relax a bit and his smile widened some. After they let go, they stood in some bit of an awkward silence before Roger finally thought of what to say next.

"If you uh.. If you're free, we can do lunch.", he offered. "I'll pay."

"Uh.. Actually I uh..", Heinz began to say, looking up the stairs and spotting Phineas who was smiling back down, before turning back to his brother. "I'm a little busy. I've got a visitor over."

"Oh..", Roger's shoulder's slumped with slight discouragement. "Well.. I see your point. But you know if you ever wanna. We could.. We could try to hang out a bit more. Maybe be bit better of brothers?"

Heinz smiled a bit and gave a slight nod, "Yeah.. Yeah that'd be...nice. ...Tomorrow?"

"I'm open."

"Perfect."

With that the two went their ways. As Roger began to go back down stairs, Heinz smiled up at Phineas in absolute amazement with wide eyes that were lit up with excitement.

"'Can you believe that?'", he mouthed silently to Phineas.

When Heinz reached up he finally decided to confront Phineas with the question, "Okay. What did you do to the inator?"

"A niceinator's a handy thing to have, now isn't it?", Phineas replied, revealing his own master plan.

Heinz's eyes, if at all possible, grew wider in shock as he stared down at the young boy.

All Phineas did was lick his finger and draw a chalk-mark in the air while saying, "Chalk one up for me."

After a moment of just staring at Phineas, realizing how Phineas had planned it all. With saying he agreed. With helping him build the inator. With encouraging Heinz with his evil scheme and everything. He suddenly glared down at the young boy and pointed with a hasty finger.

"Hey wait a minute! You lied to me! You didn't wanna help me kill Roger, you wanted to help me get a better relationship."

"NO. I said, I wanna help you with the invention. I said that you were right. Roger does, in some sense or another, deserved to die but I didn't say he HAD to. I also said that I worked on the voltage to make his brain explode and it did. With the understanding of exactly how mean he's been and how he should try to make it better with you. I had promised you the best day ever and the best day isn't always the way we think of it. Sometimes, the absolute best days of all, are the days we often have NO plans for.", Phineas explained himself. "I used carefully chosen words that were on a fine line to convince you I was on your side as you had tried on me to convince me you were still on my side. That's really the only harm I did."

As Doofenshmirtz listened, his expression softened a bit and he gave a smile at the end. He chuckled and shook his head.

"Man, you're a lot smarter than I thought.", he said making Phineas laugh at this and agree. "So uh.. Hey, you think we could use this on a couple of other people who's bugged me in the past?"

"Uh.. Actually. No.", Phineas said.

"No? What do you mean no?", Heinz said, confused by the thought.

"Well by now, the invention's probably already disappeared.", Phineas shrugged.

"What?"

"Every day when I build something with my friends and brother, it always has a tendency of disappearing if we don't destroy it or give it away ourselves. According to Candace at least. I don't know what happens to it all, but in one way or another, it's gone. Just as plain and simple as that.", Phineas explained. "For all I know, the invention's long gone now that we're done using it for it's first purpose."

Upon hearing this, Heinz quickly rushed to the room to see if it was still there with Phineas following shortly behind. When they came into the room, the younger was right and the machine was gone. Doof could barely make a sentence out of it.

"Wh-? But it couldn't-! There's no one for me to-! I mean it can't just-! Hey! Where's..?", he stammered as he looked down at the empty cage that once held the platypus.

Phineas wasn't really paying attention to Doofenshmirtz's surprise as he noticed something on the ground. A black mark indicating a recent explosion was on the floor. Right where the invention stood. He walked over and looked down at what had really caught him. A small red button with the words, "Self Destruct" above and below it. He turned to the doc and held it up with a slight glare. The doctor saw the button and was instantly embarrassed and gave a weak chuckle as he tried to find a way out of it.

"Oh! Well.. Uh.. I uh...", he began as he searched for a plausible lie. "D-don't get mad here Phineas."

"Oh no. I'm BEYOND PISSED OFF!", Phineas snarled. "I've told you a thousand times NOT to put a self-destruct button on our inventions! 9 or 10 of them got destroyed that way!"

"But I-! I-I-! It's a habit!", Doof finally admitted as if giving out a secret obsession of his. "I have a self-destruction problem!"

"Oh I'LL show you a destruct problem!", Phineas threatened as he threw the useless button at him.

That's when Heinz noticed something as he caught the button and looked at it.

"Hey.. Wait a minute. This isn't the button for the inator.", he examined. "This is a completely different self-destruct button."

"Well then what happened to the inator?", Phineas asked as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Beats me. I'm guessing Perry the Platypus somehow escaped and pressed the button on the inator and this one just happened to be laying nearby. Funny coincidence though because I've, quite honestly, forgot what this one even does!", he shrugged as he sat it down on the table. "So, if you'll excuse me... Ahem. CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS!"

As he yelled, he walked over to the balcony, angrily shaking his fist in the air even though the platypus was no where to be found. Phineas only rolled his eyes with a slight smile when another noise was heard.

"Dad! I'm back!", Vanessa called from the ground floor. "I need to talk to you and Phineas."

"Coming!", Doof called out, walking out of the room.

After he left, Phineas picked up the button and looked at it curiously, wondering what it did. He fingered the shiny red button and accidentally pressed it. Immediately a large explosion took place some many miles from behind Phineas though it was loud enough to catch his attention. Phineas froze in slight fear. He looked behind him to in fact see the large mushroom cloud of smoke and dust in the distance, caused by his button-pushing and quickly tossed the remote behind him, hitting a pigeon in the head with it, and causing that bird to fall out of the sky, before running out of the room.

"Dr. D.! Wait up for me!", he said, racing out.

He finally caught up and before he could say much, he was suddenly caught in a tight embrace by his bigger sister, whom he really wasn't expecting to see.

"Oh my gosh! Phineas are you okay? You hurt? Are you hungry?", Candace asked, backing up and looking over him carefully and frantically. "I was so worried! What on earth have you been doing and.. Do I smell oil on you?"

"Whoa! Candace slow down! I have no idea what you're saying!", Phineas said, backing up some himself as he tried to catch up in his mind.

"Phineas!", Candace finally said, catching his attention as she tried to keep it slow. "Are you okay?"

"Yes...", Phineas began before adding on, "...Are you?"

Candace only smiled and hugged her little brother close as a couple of tears escaped her eyes, "Yes.. Yes I am."

"Okay..", Phineas nodded, feeling a little awkward by the hug. "...Are you crying?"

"I'm sorry Phineas. I, I came back to the park and didn't see you there. I was so scared! I thought you were kidnapped!", Candace explained, backing up a bit to smile down at him.

"What? If I wasn't there, why didn't you just call me?", Phineas asked.

"Phineas.. You have a new cell phone and hadn't bothered giving me your new number.", Candace rolled her eyes. "If there WAS to be contact between us, you'd have to call ME."

"Oh! Oops! Sorry, I guess I forgot.", Phineas gave a sheepish smile.

"Well let's go ahead and get you home then.", Candace said, standing up. "Mom's gonna be back soon."

"Wait a minute! What about the stuff Dr. D. and I have been building?", Phineas asked, causing Candace to freeze in her tracks.

"...You were building inventions?", she asked, looking down at him. "...this whole time?"

"Yeah! We built kinetic suits and chalk-spit and the world's best coffee and a mental mirror.", Phineas began to list.

"What? Ooh! When Mom finds out what you've been up to, you're gonna be so..", Candace paused for a moment, staring down at Phineas who was curiously and so innocently looking back up.

After all that's happened today. After all the worry and strife and mayhem. And she STILL was gonna try to bust him? She was still gonna try to bust him for just being himself? Candace finally resided to giving a sigh and face-palming herself before pointing to the door Phineas came out of.

"Just go get your jank and let's go home.", she simply said.

Phineas simply shrugged, none the wiser of what had happened and went with Doof to pick out what he'd keep and what he'd leave. After some talking and rearranging of things, the agreement was that Phineas kept the kinetic suits that were his size, a piece of the mental mirror that they had cut off, and obviously he could keep the chalk-spit. That was infused into his own spit until it ran out of his system, so he couldn't have much choice. Heinz kept his size of the kinetic suits, the other half of the mental mirror, the recolor ray and Phineas thought it more useful for him to have the recipe for the coffee but one thing seemed to be left.

"No. YOU should keep it. It's YOUR design.", Dr. Doofenshmirtz argued, pushing the empinator towards Phineas.

"But it has YOUR music. And it was YOUR invention that YOU won with at the competition.", Phineas urged. "It's as much of mine as it's yours."

"But it's your design and you did most of the work. I won the contest and I got Roger's apology. You've already done enough for me.", Heinz said with a smile.

"But-", Phineas began before getting cut off.

"Phineas, I know what you're gonna do today! You're GONNA take it home with you!", Heinz pressed in a teasing manner.

Phineas couldn't help but laugh and picked up the empinator and placed in a box saying, "Alright alright. I can't argue with that."

"No. No you can't.", Doof chuckled, making Phineas laugh even more.

Doof kept the trophy and Phineas kept the machine and soon Candace, Phineas, and Vanessa were climbing into Vanessa's car one last time. That's when Candace noticed something on Phineas' hand.

"Hey. What's that?", she asked, pointing down at it.

Phineas looked down at his hand and pulled it up. Something red was written on there but he doesn't write on his hand. This is what the message said;

"Dear Phineas,

Thanks for the best day ever.

~Heinz Doofenshmirtz"

Phineas smiled and couldn't help but chuckle as he looked back up at the balcony Doofenshmirtz was leaning over. The man looked down at the kid on the street with a smile as he waved goodbye and held up the recolor ray with a wave before zapping Phineas' hand back to normal. Phineas looked back at his hand, finding it normal and climbed into the car and went home. Doofenshmirtz watched them go and then turned around to face his empty lab with a small sigh. He thought about the events of the day and the things that took place and for once, felt like today, he's actually won something. Not just the competition but something a little larger.

"...It was nice to see Candace again.", he muttered to himself.

Suddenly there was a familiar chattering noise and Perry came out of a hiding spot, looking up at him curiously.

"Oh, there you are Perry the Platypus.", Doof noted. "Did you blow up the niceinator?"  
>Perry gave a nod, 'It's in my job description after all.'<p>

"Well, I guess I can't blame you.", Heinz shrugged. "Were you hiding here the whole time Phineas was hanging out?"

Perry gave another nod and was soon followed by the question, "Then I guess you're curious of that back story with me and Linda, huh?"

Perry gave another nod and settled in for the story. Back in the suburbs of Danville, Linda was pulling onto the road her house was on when she heard a faint sense of music. It wasn't the car radio but even with the windows up, she could hear it for blocks.

"Is... Is that coming from our house?", Linda asked her husband who simply shrugged. "Oh! If Candace gave another party, she's SO busted!"

After pulling up into their driveway, where the music was much louder, Linda grabbed her luggage and opened the front door to find Phineas and Candace happily singing and dancing with each other in the living room to the music player in Phineas' hand.

_"Gitchie gitchie goo" means that I love you!_  
><em>"Gitchie gitchie goo" means... that I love you,<em>  
><em>Baby! Baby! Baby!<em>  
><em>(Baby baby baby baby)<em>  
><em>"Gitchie gitchie goo" means that I love you!<em>

They laughed and Candace turned to greet their parents.

"Oh hey Mom! Sorry, was the music too loud?", she asked as Phineas turned the empinator off.

"Uh... Where you and Phineas just dancing to music while we were gone?", she asked.

"Well I did make an appearance at Jeremy's party.", Candace shrugged.

"And I had the greatest time at the inventor's competition. Me and my partner won, even!", Phineas explained with a happy smile as they sat on the couch.

Linda raised a curious eyebrow since they all knew she had been gone for hours and that much didn't really cover the time, "...and..?"

"Well we did play a game of hide and seek.", Candace said, catching Phineas in a playful headlock. "The little scamp's a real good hider too!"

"Me? YOU didn't look hard enough!", Phineas laughed as he tried to escape her harsh noogying.

'I am SO pissed off at you for "hiding"...', Candace thought to herself.

After looking around the room for any traces of a wild party and finding everything to be in order, the parents headed up the stairs while Candace, Phineas, and Ferb watched. As soon as they were out of sight and out of hearing range, the two blood siblings laid back on the catch, finally letting out a relieved sigh as they relaxed.

"WHEW man that was a close one..", Phineas sighed.

"Yeah. 'bout the closest I've ever gotten.", Candace agreed.

Ferb, however, wasn't affected by their close-call but instead simply folded his arms across his chest with a raised eyebrow and a smile with a chuckle, "What did I miss?"

Phineas and Candace looked at each other for a moment before laughing a bit and Phineas rolled his eyes and walked over to Ferb, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Ferb, you would NOT believe the day we've had.", Phineas simply said.

"Hey, what's this 'WE' business? I'M the one who cried throughout most of it!", Candace teased.

"Yeah but YOU didn't have to deal with a maniac.", Phineas pointed out, also in a teasing manner.

"Trust me Phineas. I deal with one EVERYDAY.", Candace retorted, pointing down at him.

"Ouch!", Phineas chuckled.

Meanwhile, back at the DEI, both Perry and Vanessa were thoroughly mortified looking as Heinz finally concluded his discussion.

"So uh...yeeeaaahh...", Heinz finally said, both blushing and tapping his fingers nervously as he was equally mortified.

An awkward silence pursued as Doof couldn't help but mention. Fortunately it was soon broken by an even more awkward moment.

"Who wants snacks?", Norm offered cheerfully, coming out of the kitchen.

DA ENDZ! 8D


End file.
